


This Ain't a Romance Novel

by N0tn0wbr0



Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: Clubbing, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Fantasizing, M/M, Masturbating, Mutual Pining, Pining, Pining Gavin Reed, Slow Burn, and BOY do they love insta, bc i dont have the attention span for that, but not that slow, gavin centric, lots of instagram bc gavin is a gen z
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-08-08
Updated: 2018-09-03
Packaged: 2019-06-23 16:43:20
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 45,399
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15610563
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/N0tn0wbr0/pseuds/N0tn0wbr0
Summary: The younger cops think Connor needs some ‘age’ appropriate interaction, and try to get him out from under Hank’s watchful eye. Gavin of course is dragged along and gets way more than he bargained for. Then again, he isn’t really complaining.





	1. Hero Worship

Gavin remembers being at the station, watching the news with Tina and Chris. He remembers watching the cameras narrow in on the surrounded androids, their eerie singing sending chills down his spine. Perfectly in tune, just another perfection that broke the illusion of them being human. Then he remembers the gasps of his coworkers as the cameras suddenly zoomed off the group and focused on a huge crowd of androids marching straight from the street that Gavin knows connects to the Cyberlife entrance. Gavin hears Chris break the silence in the break room with a soft “Oh my god” as the cameras zoomed to show who lead this massive crowd and the whole station held their breath when they realized it was Connor.

And Gavin hated that he could tell in the way Connor walked that he was different now.

Gavin honestly should not have been surprised when two weeks after the demonstration Connor waltz back into the DPD. He was surprised when Connor entered Fowler’s office by himself.

“Do you think he’ll say he’s the android sent by the Detroit Police Department now?” Chris had suddenly appeared leaning on Gavin’s desk, also watching the meeting.

“What? Why the hell would he say that?” Gavin shook himself and tried to refocus on his reports.

“Well, Connor now works here. That’s what they’re talking about.” Chris looked down at Gavin, giving him a funny look when he met Gavin’s horrified look. “Did you think Fowler was going to pass over the most expensive and efficient forensic detective when we are already are shorthanded?” Chris gave a short laugh and clapped Gavin on the shoulder. ”You’re going to have to play nice now or your file is going to look like Hank’s.”

Gavin cursed under his breath, running a hand through his hair. He looked back up at the office as he saw Connor and Fowler step out of the office.

“Listen up everyone,” Fowler’s deep voice garnered everyone’s attention. “Connor now is a fully instated detective here at the DPD. We haven’t had many issues since he joined us in November,” He looked over at Gavin suddenly. “And I don’t expect any more.” He turned back to the whole room and Gavin resisted the urge to cross his arms and slouch. “So welcome our newest member.” He gave Connor a slap on the back and Gavin almost barked out laughing when the hard hit didn’t move the android an inch and Fowler cringed a second later.

Gavin had anticipated the worst at this announcement. He expected the department to unravel in chaos. He imagined he or another cop would get fired within the week. Instead the only thing that seemed to change was Connor.

Throughout the following week, Gavin watched in horror as Connor’s desk became decorated in small welcoming gifts the other officers gave him. The damn android now had a dog mug (that he had no use for), a few photo frames (that he had annoyingly filled with photos of Hank and his dog and the other androids from the demonstration), and Connor’s favorite things seemed to be the little potted plants. He even moved the damn things to a window in the morning so they could get some sunlight.

Connor’s desk wasn’t the only thing that changed. Connor had been an asshole before this whole ‘deviancy’ thing, but now he was a snarky asshole. Gavin had been in the breakroom with Tina and Collins three days ago when Connor walked into the room, heading to the fridge. “Sorry tin-can we don’t keep blue blood in our fridge.” Gavin snapped at the android from over his cup of coffee.

Connor grabbed a Tupperware and turned around with a look of disappointment on his face. Gavin thought he was hallucinating until Connor tsked. “Aw Gavin, that was incredibly uncreative of you. You can do better than that.” Connor then smirked and walked out the room. Gavin nearly fell out of his chair. Tina was clutching her stomach from laughing and Collin’s laugh was probably heard from the front of the station.

This new Sassy-Connor, according to Chris, was really cool. Gavin had scoffed when Chris wheeled himself over to tell Gavin that. “Aw come on man. Tina and I are inviting him to lunch, and you are coming with us.” Gavin tried to ignore Chris staring holes into him. “I think if you gave him a chance and actually met him, you’d lighten up.”

“You and Tina are idiots, androids don’t eat.” Gavin looked over at Chris, affronted when Chris still looked determined.

“You are coming to lunch with us.” Chris slapped his hand on Gavin’s desk and pushed himself to roll back to his desk. Gavin just rolled his eyes.

Gavin watched from the corner of his eye about two hours later as Tina walked up to Connor’s desk. He smirked when the robot turned towards Hank probably asking Hank to go. He never could leave that man’s side, a true puppy. Gavin frowned though when Hank looked up from his computer, looked between Tina and Connor then shook his hand waving the android away. Connor shrugged and gathered his jacket following Tina. Gavin still had a frown on his face as Chris shoved his shoulder to get him moving. Gavin gave a sighed and grabbed his jacket. He made eye contact with Hank’s suspicious glare before he left the bullpen. Gavin stuck his tongue out at the old man, and the instant flash of anger on his face before Gavin left was worth it.

What Gavin had not been expecting was for them all to take Tina’s car and go to a sit down place. They were seated quickly, and Gavin idly listened to the conversation as he looked over the menu.

“Connor, where do you live now?” Tina asked.

“I currently live with Lieutenant Anderson.”

“Is that why the old man comes to work on time now?” Gavin mused mostly to himself.

“Yes, he was resistant to a change in his personal schedule, but after a few ice baths, he’s come around.” Connor smirked. Gavin lowered his menu to stare at the android.

“You didn’t!” Chris was smiling like a fiend. “You’ve poured cold water on him?”

“Only two or three times.” Connor’s smirk remained in place as he waved a hand nonchalantly.

Gavin still hated the robot, but if he harassed Hank, then he wasn’t that awful of a person. Android. Whatever.

Their waitress came over to take their order. She introduced herself, passing out napkins to each of them before her eyes landed on Connor. “It’s you.” She said in a breathless voice. Connor looked up in shock, seemingly frozen. “It’s you!” She repeated as she knelt next to the android. “You saved me from the SWAT team back on the Jericho.” She grabbed onto his hands. “I’ve wanted to find you for weeks now.” She had tears in her eyes. The three humans all glanced at each other before looking back at Connor, who still seemed frozen. “You saved my life. I can’t thank you enough. By the time I got back to Jericho after the revolution, everyone I asked said you had left already.”

Gavin watched cautiously as Connor’s LED spun yellow, before the android seemed to unfreeze. “It was no problem. I couldn’t let them kill more innocents.” Connor had managed to free one of his hands, and gave nervous laugh and patted her hands that still clutched his other hand. “Really it was nothing.”

“You are the RK model. Like Markus. You’re a unique model. You two were created with a higher purpose in mind.” The waitress still knelt next to Connor, who now looked decidedly uncomfortable.

Gavin rolled his eyes at the android’s words. “The only higher purpose he was made for was licking evidence.” That seemed to snap everyone out of their trance. Chris hissed his named and smacked him on the arm. Tina, who had been leaning towards Connor on his other side to get a view of the other android, leaned back in her chair. The waitress seemed to remember she was at work and stood up, wiping at her eyes. Connor shot him a relieved look. Gavin decidedly looked back at his menu.

“Right, um, I’m sorry I got carried away.” The waitress brushed off her apron. “What would you like to order?” They all ordered quickly, Connor unsurprisingly didn’t order anything.

“That was awkward.” Tina muttered once the waitress left.

Chris gave a low whistle before leaning across the table towards Connor. “That must happen often Mr. Hero.”

Connor gave a nervous glance behind him. “No, that has never happened before. I thought she recognized me from when I hunted deviants.”

“What?” Chris’s disbelieve was palpable. Gavin recognized the teasing look in Chris’s eye and tried not to roll his own. “Are you telling me that after freeing hundreds of people, you don’t have people fawning over you in hero worship?”

“Hero worship?” Connor did that head tilt that made him look like a puppy.

Tina sat back up, engaging in the conversation. “Yeah, you know like ‘Oh Connor, you saved me, let me repay you for all you have done!’” Tina mimicked a damsel leaning into the android’s side. Gavin rolled his eyes.

“Or ‘Oh Connor, let me show you how thankful I am to you.’” Chris reached across the table to grab the android’s hand, but could barely contain his laugh.

Gavin watched in amusement as Connor remained puzzled, like he knew he would. “No, no one has ever said that to me. Also androids are just now finding jobs so they do not have a disposable income to gift me money, and that would be unethical for me to accept money.”

The waitress reappeared with everyone’s food. The three humans watched her closely as she placed everyone’s food down, leaning closer to Connor than was necessary. Chris’s jaw dropped when the waitress placed a hand on Connor’s bicep, hand lingering there as she asked if there was anything he wanted. When he declined her hand ran over his shoulder as she left.

“Dude!” Chris stage whispered across the table. “She definitely wants to ‘repay’ you.”

Connor still looked confused. Gavin was beginning to wonder if his coworkers were idiots and forgot Connor was an android. “I feel like I’m missing the context.”

“Sex Connor.” Tina gave a tired sigh, wanting to clarify and not run in circles. “She wants to have sex with you for saving her life.”

Gavin wanted to laugh at loud as the android’s face went from confused to shocked, his LED going from a slow spinning yellow to a fast spinning yellow. “Oh.” Connor finally said quietly leaning back in his seat.

Gavin could literally have timed Chris’s patience. “So…” He drew out the word. “Would you let her ‘repay’ you?”

Connor crinkled his nose. “No.” He looked at Chris with his own concerned look. “That would be morally and ethically wrong.”

Gavin was surprised when Tina jumped in. “Yeah, but do you find her attractive?”

Connor thought for a moment. Gavin wanted to roll his eyes, it was a simple yes or no answer. “She is an attractive person, but I don’t have a drive to have sex with her.”

“But,” Chris interjected.

“Okay guys. Are y’all dumb?” Gavin has had enough. “Connor is an android. They don’t have those feelings. No pleasure or pain receptors.”

“But Connor is a deviant, they do feel things.” Tina immediately snapped at him.

“Actually Detective Reed,” Connor spoke up, and Gavin wasn’t sure he wanted to hear what he was going to say next. “I do have pleasure and pain receptors. Just my pain sensors are dialed down due to the field I work in.”

“Whoa, are you saying you do have sexual desires?” Tina looked fascinated.

Now all three of them were looking at Connor, who suddenly had the decency to look embarrassed. “It is possible. But I- I have not felt those feeling yet.”

Alright Gavin was one hundred percent done with this conversation. “Okay, slackers, we are done. Let’s pay and get back to work.”


	2. Wait why clubbing?

It has been a week in half since that lunch and Gavin has had the unfortunate realization that he had been spending a considerable more amount of time with the android courtesy of Tina and Chris. Now Gavin knew more about the android than he ever had wanted to. For example, he now knew that Connor would go see the other androids of the rebellion on his days off. Or the fact that Connor suddenly had taste buds and could sample small bits of food. When he asked why the hell Cyberlife put out an update like that Connor got nervous and Gavin watched suspiciously as Connor skirted the topic, mumbling something about it ‘not being from Cyberlife’. Gavin was not ready to admit he actually was starting to think the android was okay or interesting.

Another thing Gavin, Tina, and Chris noticed was that while Connor looked young, he was out of date. They would make pop culture references or joke about old memes, and it would fly over his head. It was infuriating for Chris and Tina.

The three of them were in the breakroom drinking coffee to power them through the final hours of their shifts, except for Tina who was just starting hers. “We need to help Connor have more age appropriate interactions.” She mumbled into her cup.

Gavin snorted. “Then we should take him to a daycare.”

Tina shot him an unamused stare. “Asshat. No, we need to have him hang out with the people he looks closer in age to,” she motioned to the three of them “instead of just Hank and other androids.”

“I mean we do hang out with him.” Chris leaned forward now.

Tina got a wicked gleam in her eye. “We take him clubbing.”

Gavin groaned out loud. “That sounds like an awful idea. And how does that help him understand your meme references?” Gavin looked over at the android who sat stiffly at his desk. “Also I think Hank would never let us. We’re not exactly the most responsible group.”

Tina smirked, pointedly ignoring his question. “You leave that to me.”

Gavin tried to be inconspicuous as he watched Tina walk over to Connor’s desk. He watched her chat with Connor who seemed to agree without much hesitation. Which, of course, caught Hank’s attention, who now was asking Tina questions with a grumpy fatherly look on his face. Tina jabbed her thumb behind her at Chris’s desk and then to Gavin’s desk, who moved too late to look like he was working. He caught Hank’s gaze, and Hank’s frown worsened. Rude. Connor then began talking to Hank, probably reasoning with him, before Hank gave a huff sat back in his chair, seeming to give in. Tina beamed brightly, walking away. A few moments later Gavin’s phone buzzed. ‘Meet at ur apt fri at 10’ Gavin tried to shake off the excited feeling that bubbled up in his chest.

The following three days remained uneventful. Gavin strutted into the station around 4pm pushing the man he finally caught trying to smuggle Red Ice over the Canadian border hidden within kitchen appliances. He proudly locked the scumbag up in a cell before going to arrange the proper channels to get the criminal tried and put into jail. It was around 7pm by the time he finished the paperwork and submitted his evidence with it. Gavin finally leaned back in his chair, looking around the bullpen. Chris and Fowler had the day off so they weren’t around. Tina had finished her shift 2 hours ago. Seymour was quietly working at his desk with headphones in. Collins was in the breakroom eating dinner. Looked like he planned to stay longer tonight. Everyone else had gone home by now. Except for Connor and Anderson. They had just gotten back from a crime scene about an hour ago, discussing the scene and writing up the reports.

Gavin watched the android across from him. The machine sat so stiff and poised. It was tough to picture him trying to blend into a crowd at a club. Gavin entertained an image of Connor continuously bumping into people left and right, apologizing every single time. And then there were Connor’s social skills. Just picturing him in a club was a funny idea. Connor probably would try to start a conversation with someone at the bar about androids rights. Or worse on the dance floor. Gavin suppressed the grin he felt trying to creep on his features.

“Connor,” Hank’s voice cut him out of his daydreaming. “Go warm up the car for me.” He tossed the keys to the android who caught them easily.

“Have you finished your reports?” Connor barely looked up from his screen.

“No, but I’m done for the day.” Hank muttered. Connor looked like he was about to say something, but decided against it. He grabbed his coat and headed out giving small waves as he passed everyone. Gavin surprised himself by actually giving a small wave back. Gavin barely had to time to turn back to his computer after Connor walked out when Hank was suddenly leaning over his desk. “What the fuck Anderson?” Gavin tried to not show how much the older man just shocked him.

“Listen to me carefully,” Hank’s voice was gruffer than usual. “If you don’t want a broken nose Sunday morning, you keep an eye on him, and you get him home safely.” Hank stood up to his full height. “If I hear any stories from him about any shenanigans I find inappropriate, there will be hell.”

“What the hell? Why are you just lecturing me?”

Hank fixed him with a look. “You and I both know you aren’t on this ‘Connor-college-life’ phase that Chen and Miller are wrapped up in. “I’m expecting you to be the rational one here, or so help me I will show up to the club to roll the whole lot of you.” Hank took a step back as is to leave but he paused before sighing. “Make sure he’s safe, but still has fun.” The older detective said in a voice so low, that if Gavin hadn’t watch the old man grow soft on the android over the last few months he would have never believed it. Gavin tried not to dwell on it too much as he collected his coat and left work for the day.

When Gavin got home, he tried not to think of the idea of going to a club with Connor as he fed his cat. He tried not to think about it as he cooked and ate dinner, he tried not to think about it as he showered and got ready. He failed as he was getting dressed. Would Connor be dressed in normal clothes? Gavin shook his head. No way! Connor would probably be wearing his button down and tie.

Gavin had finished putting on his shirt on when his phone buzzed. It was a video call from Tina. Gavin answered it. It took a minute for the phones to synch up. Chris declined the call and Gavin figured he was currently driving.

“Gavin!” Tina greeted him between fits of laughter. She was in her car. “Hey, Connor and I are going to be late.”

“Why?” Gavin deadpanned.

“Gavin, I need to take him to the mall.” She could barely talk around her giggles. “He- He’s, Gavin Connor is trying to wear his work clothes to the club!” She finally finished before a new wave of giggles hit her.

Called it, Gavin thought.

“I don’t see why my clothes are not acceptable? They are formals, are we not going out in public?” Gavin heard Connor in the background.

“Connor do me a favor and search for ‘clubbing attire’.” Tina finally managed to stifle her giggles. There was a moment of silence.

“Tina I don’t see how a cocktail dress or mini skirt are hardly appropr-” Connor was cut off by both Tina and Gavin busting out laughing. Tina laughed so hard she snorted.

“Well now I can see why you’ll be late. Hurry before Chris crashes on my couch.” Gavin calmed down first and hung up on Tina. Gavin felt himself still chuckling. Curious he did a google search of ‘clubbing attire’ himself to see what images Connor pulled up. Gavin began chuckling at the images of skimpy dresses that popped up. Suddenly an image of Connor wearing those skimpy outfits flitted across his brain and Gavin almost dropped his phone in shock. What the fuck? Hank’s warning also resurfaced in his mind.

Luckily his doorbell rang and he went to let Chris in. “Tina and Connor will be late, she’s giving him a makeover.” Gavin closed the door and went to the kitchen to grab two beers. Chris had already put on a basketball game by the time he came back. They sat and only watched 30 minutes of the game before there was a knock at the door. Gavin got up with a groan to let them in.

Tina was all dolled up like she normally did when the group went out at night. He always hated that she was his height when she wore heels. As if he didn’t already wish he was taller. She greeted him quickly, bee-lining for his unattended beer.

“Hello Gavin,” Connor gave a short wave as he followed her in. Connor was wearing normal clothes. Gavin needed to take a minute to process the sight in front of him. Connor was wear simple (tight) light blue jeans, a plain (tight) white shirt tucked into those jeans. A plain black car buckle belt. Gavin had to wonder where the hell Tina found one of those. They hadn’t been in style since 2014.

“Wow,” Chris drew the word out, dragging Gavin from his inner monologue. “Thirst levels through the roof!” Gavin blinked to notice everyone was staring at him.

“What? No, fuck off” Gavin grumbled as he sat back on the couch. “Ya girls waited too long, so now you have to wait until half time.”

Tina sat on the recliner, still drinking the rest of Gavin’s beer. “Whatever, it’s not like we’re going to win. Miami is still going to kick our ass.” She shrugged.

Gavin ignored her pessimisms. Actually he was more surprised the Sassy robot hadn’t made a comment on the ‘girls’ remark. Gavin looked over the back of his couch and nearly felt his heart palpitate. Connor was sitting on the floor, his arms full with Gavin’s fuzzy companion. The damn cat was nuzzling against the android’s face. Connor had such a content look on his face, and Gavin would bet Connor wouldn’t mind sitting there to pet the cat the whole night instead.

Chris finally turned around to see what Gavin was gaping at. “Well shit, that cat doesn’t even like to be in the same room as me and I’ve been coming around here long before Gavin got the damn thing.” Chris muttered. He and Gavin shared a look, and Gavin did not feel ready to decipher what it meant.

Gavin slapped the back of the couch and stood up. “Alright let’s call a cab.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> come yell at me on tumblr at notnowbro or notnowbroimfangirling :)


	3. It's getting hot in here...TOO HOT

Gavin and Chris hung out behind Tina and Connor as they waited in line at the club. Chris suddenly jabbed his elbow into Gavin’s side, turning to face Gavin while turning away from the two ahead of them. “So you’re a dog person huh?” He said with a grin.

Gavin had to take a moment to squint at Chris before he understood the other cop’s meaning. “God, no dude, I was just surprised.” Gavin hunched his shoulders more because of the cold.

“Uh-huh.” Chris rolled his eyes. “This might be your chance to discover if you are a dog person.” He waggled his eyebrows. “You know get close and just dance a bit.” Chris made small body roll motions.

“Dude, no. I don’t want someone to have weird impressions and get mauled by Poppa Dog on Sunday.” Gavin rolled his shoulders.

That actually made Chris pause. “Oh shit. Did you get the dad talk?” Chris pressed when Gavin remained silent. “No way! Did he do the whole have him home by 11? Aw man, how come I didn’t get that talk? I would have appreciated it much more than you.”

“It’s probably why I’m the one who got it.” Gavin mumbled. Chris let it drop as the line moved up and they stood in front of the bouncer.

“How many?” The bouncer looked at the group. Gavin tried not to notice that it was one of those bigger android models for heavy lifting. Probably very good at his new job Gavin distantly noted.

Tina took up the lead. “Four!” She linked one arm with Connor and reached her free hand to pat Gavin’s arm. The bouncer was quiet for a moment and Gavin watched in mortified interest as the larger android looked over Connor approvingly. Like a full eyes running down his form and slowly back up, a small smile coming over his features. He waved them in, removing the rope for a moment.

As they entered the club, Gavin’s eyes and ears tried to adjust to the lights and thrumming music. Gavin surveyed the club as they walked to the coat room. Not too busy, but enough people dancing that would you definitely be bumping into someone. The upstairs lounge area didn’t look too packed, also seemed a good place to watch the crowd below sway. Some room at the bar so they could grab drinks. Which was good, Gavin could tell he was going to need alcohol. Gavin grabbed a high top after they hung up their coats.  Connor seemed to numbly follow Tina as he took in the room. Those brown eyes were wide, with a cautiously curious expression on his face as his LED spun yellow.

“First time in a club Astroboy?” Gavin couldn’t resist the nickname.

Connor took a moment to divert his eyes back to their group. “No, I’ve been in a few, for cases, but they are usually empty of customers by the time we arrive.”

Tina laid a hand on his arm to get his attention. “If at any time you want to leave let us know. We want you to have fun.”

Connor’s smile reached his eyes at her words. “Thank you, but I think I’ll be fine. I’m amazed at this. There seems to be a good balance between human and android here.” Connor looked back out to the crowd. “The way people disregard standard personal space around strangers purely because of the environment, it’s intriguing for lack of a better term.”

“Alright let’s start with drinks!” Tina shouted over the music. “Can androids drink now?”

Connor seemed shocked at the question. “I-uh, I’m not sure. I know I can’t consume more than sixteen ounces of extraneous fluids without damaging my system.” He seemed to scan the room. “I can see a few different androids consuming liquids that are not blue blood but I’m not sure.”

“Let’s go find out!” Tina grabbed Connor’s arm and dragged him to the bar. Gavin had a bad feeling but he followed anyway. Seemed like he would have to babysit more than he thought he would. Tina might be a bit too overzealous.

When they made it to the bar, they only had to wait a few minutes until the bartender stopped in front of them. “What’ll it be?”

“Hi, I want screwdriver, and do you have something fun for androids?” Tina leaned towards the bartender.

The bartender gave a smile at Connor. “First time partying?” Connor gave a cautious nod. Gavin figured he should be relieved the android was still vigilant. “Yeah I got something.” He turned away to make Tina’s drink and poured a light green drink in a tall shot then slid them towards the two. “First ones on the house, let me know if you like it.” The bartender winked at Connor, who gave a surprised blink before mumbling a ‘thank you’. “What can I get you guys?” The bartender turned to Chris and Gavin with much less enthusiasm.

Gavin was impressed that Chris stifled his giggle. “I’ll just have Blue Moon.”

“Two shots of Hennessey.” Chris said quickly.  “We doing shots!” Chris said defensively at the look Gavin shot him. 

When the bartender dropped off their drinks, Tina noticed the shots and moved around so Connor was in between her and Gavin. “Shots!” She shouted.

Gavin did actually laugh out loud at Connor’s confused and worried expression. “It’s where you quickly drink a mouthful of strong alcohol.” He explained.

“Watch!” Chris shouted. He pushed one of the shots at Gavin. Gavin rolled his eyes before clinking his shot against Chris’s and threw it back, trying to ignore how Connor was watching him.

“Oh,” Connor observed, before tossing the drink back as well. Gavin gave short huff of laughter as Connor’s face scrunched up.

“Yeah it’s not sugar water for us either.” Chris laughed, reaching a hand out to pat Connor’s arm. “Give it like 10 minutes for it to hit.”

Connor nodded before turning his back to the bar and looking out at the crowd, LED still a pulsing yellow. Gavin wondered if it was going to remain yellow with all the stimuli. “So now what?”

Tina had a mischievous gleam in her eye. “Now’s the part where you go out and dance with a friend or you wait at the bar to meet someone new and dance with them.” She gave short laugh at the nervous look on Connor’s face at the thought of meeting new people. “Well save the second one for another day.” She went to pull him to the dance floor.

“Wait!” Connor refused to move. Gavin and Chris watched him curiously. Gavin noticed that the LED was now quickly spinning yellow. “I want to download information on modern dancing.” Gavin felt his jaw drop.

Tina gave another short laugh. “No, no. You can’t download dance moves Connor! You gotta feel it!” She tried to pull him again. This time Connor budged a bit but still seemed hesitant.

“Don’t worry, I got you Connor. I will teach you the ways in seducing anyone with your dance moves.” Chris joked, grabbing Connor’s other arm. This time Connor began to follow them to the dance floor.

Gavin felt his face flare up as Chris gave him a wink as he dragged Connor away. Connor must have caught the wink because he turned his head to look back at Gavin with a questioning look on his face. “Don’t worry, I’m just finishing my beer.” Gavin waiting until they were consumed by the crowd before heading upstairs to the lounge. He leaned over the railing nursing his beer.

It wasn’t difficult to find his three coworkers. Gavin watched in amusement as Tina and Chris leaned towards the android to instruct him how to dance. Connor kept nodding but he remained completely still, not even swaying to the beat. Gavin laughed as Chris just stared at the android for a minute before putting his hands on the androids shoulder to show him how to at least bounce to the beat. Once Chris thought he had a good grasp he let go and Gavin could practically hear the “Yeah man, there you go!” However Connor was only swaying his shoulders, his hips still and arms locked at his side. Chris began showing Connor how he moved, simple hip rolls and an easy side to side motion to the music. Connor observed for a minute, before perfectly mimicking the cop. Gavin nearly spit out his beer.

Tina was cheering and waving her arms as Connor seemed to get more comfortable with the movements. Gavin watched as Connor seemed to loosen up. Slowly he began to blend in with the crowd. Gavin couldn’t see the LED from where he was, but it looked like the other was having fun. A group of girls began to gravitate towards his coworkers. “This will be interesting.” Gavin mumbled to himself. The girls seemed to be average club goers. They started with Tina, having fun and dancing comfortably with each other in a way Gavin has only seen girls do. Then they began moving closer, one of them coming up to Chris. Gavin watched as a brunette leaned up to talk in his best friend’s ear. Chris smiled good-naturedly, allowing the girl to move closer and dance with him. Connor on the other hand now had two girls close to him. They both looked to be talking to him, taking turns asking him things. Probably curious about the android. Gavin got a weird feeling in his chest as he watched Connor keep glancing over to Tina and Chris every minute or two. The feeling eased back as Tina noticed and moved closer to Connor again and Connor seemed to relax back into the rhythm again.

Gavin went to take another drink of his beer, but noticed that the bottle was empty. He stood there another minute watching his coworkers dance, contemplating grabbing another beer. Hank’s stern “Keep an eye on him.” rang in his head and Gavin gave a huff. Nope. No more alcohol. He sighed before heading downstairs to meet up with his group again. Gavin noted in the back of his mind that this would be the first time he has made it onto the dance floor without having at least two beers in his system.

It’s a little bit more difficult to locate his coworkers from the ground. Gavin looks for a fluff of brown hair. Surprisingly it’s Chris that he finds first. He looked to his left and suddenly Chris was there, dancing against the brunette from earlier. “There you are! I thought you were going to wall flower the whole night.” Chris jokes with him.

He waves his friend off and pushes a little further into the crowd finding Tina and Connor. And Gavin is annoyed that it takes his breathe away for a moment. Up close the android looks just so human. He watches as the normally strict posture is relaxed enough to smoothly move to the music. Connor’s eyes are lowered to watch the bodies sway around him, a small almost smirk on his lips. Gavin thinks he should sue Cyberlife for personal trauma. How dare they make a Robocop _that_ attractive! Why did Connor need to be so attractive? Tina noticed Gavin and called his name. Those brown eyes shot up and made eye contact with him. Yup, he was going to sue.

Tina pulling on his arm broke their eye contact. “Gavin! About time! We made new friends!” She gestured to the girls from before. “They are tourist from Wisconsin!” Gavin didn’t seem to understand why that was important, but Tina seemed a bit tipsy already. Wait, had she gotten more drinks? “Ladies,” Tina spoke up so the others could hear her. “This is my other coworker Gavin!” The girls gave short greetings or smiles as they continued to dance.  

One of the girls that had been talking to Connor before swayed her way over to him. “Hey, I’m Angie. Can I dance with you?” She placed a hand on Gavin’s arm as she leaned up to talk into his ear.

Aw hell, why not. He was supposed to be enjoying himself too. “Sure.” He answered against her ear and grin on his face. She interlaced their fingers and moved closer. She slotted a leg in between Gavin’s and he had to place his free hand on her lower back to stabilize them. Huh, for a Wisconsin girl, she knew how to grind. Gavin murmured as much in her ear.

She gave a breathless laugh in response. “Do you think I just raise cattle all day every day?” She gave a particularly aggressive grind. Gavin could only give a breath of laugh in response. He looked down at her features. Her eyes were closed as she swayed, her dark brown hair with lighter streaks of brown was pulled over one shoulder. She had exactly 3 piercing on her right ear, and from the looks of the redness around one piercing, Gavin figured she recently got that one. Her skin was definitely tanned from being in the sun, so they must have been at one of the lakes. She was a pretty girl and while Gavin knew she was trying to entice him to invite her somewhere after this, he didn’t have that normal feeling he got when he went out. Gavin tried not to frown when he realized he didn’t even have the urge to lead her to a couch and make out. Odd.

Gavin’s eyes lift to find his coworkers. Chris was barely visible between the moving bodies of the crowd, but he looked like he was having fun. He gave the girl in his arms a twirl. One of his ‘signature’ moves according to the man himself. Tina was still dancing along with Angie’s friends, some other guys had gravitated over to them to dance with them. A part of Gavin hoped one of them would try to pull some shit so he could see Tina rip them apart either physically or mentally. Gavin has seen her do both and it’s a sight to behold. Connor is… staring right at him.

Gavin’s breathe stutters as he meets Connor’s gaze. His eyes are half-lidded and he still is dancing perfectly in rhythm, his mouth slightly parted. Gavin can’t break eye contact with the android, and almost breathes out a sigh of relief when Connor looks away and closes his eyes. And then Connor rolls his hips with one hand on his thigh and the other on his neck, and Gavin feels a rush of arousal shoot through him. Gavin stops himself from cursing out loud. He can’t stop watching the android dance and move his hips. The all too familiar rushing tingle that goes straight to his dick happens again and Gavin finally looks away. He refocuses on the person in front of him. As the current song plays Gavin tries not to notice that Tina and Connor’s group are moving back towards him. He’s able to ignore it right up until Connor suddenly stops dancing and stumbles away from the group. Tina and he exchange a worried glance and Gavin is gone in a second. He didn’t even say anything to the girl he was dancing with. Gavin luckily catches Connor heading towards the staircase. Connor is leaning heavily on the railing, trying to ascend but seems to be struggling when Gavin finally reaches him. That scares Gavin enough that he is one hundred percent sober in half a second. He reaches out to touch Connor’s arm and recoils immediately. Connor is burning hot. What the hell?

“Connor?” Gavin calls out his name, standing next to him on the third step of stairs. “Connor what’s wrong?” He tries to duck his head to meet Connor’s eyes.

Connor looks up at his voice but his eyes are hazy. Gavin didn’t even think androids could look out of it. “I” Connor takes a gasp of air. “I think I’m overheating.” Connor is clutching his chest. “I have a lot of warning messages, I need to sit and sort them out.”

Gavin doesn’t know what to do with an overheating android or what even causes that, but he does what he would do if it was Chris drunk off his ass. He grabs Connor’s wrist and throws his arm over his shoulder, supporting him as he helps him up the stairs. Connor’s synthetic skin is really hot, but Gavin ignores it and thinks it’s similar to touching a still hot cookie tray. When they reach the lounge Gavin sets Connor down on an empty couch. Gavin stands in front of him not sure what to do. Does he get him water? A fan? Coolant?

Connor sits on the couch, legs sprawled out and arms thrown over the back of the couch. His head is tipped back and his eyes are closed. Gavin is worried about how hard Connor’s chest is heaving. Androids didn’t really need to breathe right? Gavin kneels in front of Connor, increasingly more worried as he realized the androids LED was blinking red. “Anything I can do?” He asks loud enough over the music.

Connor rolls his head forward and meets Gavin’s eyes. “No, I just need a minute.” He closes his eyes again and seems to focus on his breathing. Gavin still is unsure so he sits next to Connor on the couch. He sits to Connor’s right so he can keep an eye on that LED. It takes the time of a complete song before Connor’s LED slowly cycles back to a steady pulsing yellow. Connor slowly opens his eyes, taking in the club. His eyes are more focused and that should settle Gavin’s nerves but it fucking doesn’t.

“What the hell was that?” Gavin tries to sound demanding but it comes out concerned.

“I’m not sure.” Connor answers slowly. “My systems suddenly began overheating.”

“Do you think it was the drink?” Gavin hates to assume the worst but this wouldn't be the first time he’s seen someone under the effects of a roofie.

That makes Connor pause. “No, the chemical makeup of the drink is only designed simulate increased endorphins.”

Gavin almost protested but then remembered Connor is a walking forensics lab. He would have noticed if there was anything weird about what he puts in his mouth. “Have you overheated before?” Maybe Connor had like android asthma or something.

“No, my model is too new for those components to have trouble. And none of them are damaged.” Connor’s eyes were flickering around the room. “It seems to have been cause by an emotional factor. I remember…” Connor pauses “looking around the crowd, then a flash of warmth came over me. Pleasant at first, then too much.” Connor’s nose scrunched up as he tried to process.

It took Gavin a full few seconds to process what Connor said. Connor had been dancing, looking around at everyone dancing and felt warm suddenly. That sounds like attraction but... Gavin’s mind helpfully supplies two pieces of information for him. That one time at lunch where Connor said he hasn’t felt desire yet, and another day in the breakroom where Connor mentioned sometimes new emotions were too overwhelming for him and he didn’t know how to handle them. Gavin’s mind felt fried but he struggled to finish his thought. Had Connor just felt attraction for the first time ever? And got overwhelmed by it? Gavin felt his face heat up. Connor would probably be _very_ sensitive to things like attraction and sexual desire. Gavin had to literally shake the lewd thoughts that flooded his brain.

“C-Connor” Gavin nearly cursed as he tripped over his tongue. “I think you just felt attraction to something.”

Connor looked at him, his LED a slow cycling yellow. Shock slowly crossed his features and his LED began to spin faster. He breathed out in a huff, bringing a hand up to rake through his hair. Gavin hated that he followed the motion with interest.  “I think I’m going to sit here for a while.”

“Alright.” Gavin leaned back into the couch, angling his body towards Connor.

“You don’t have to sit with me. I’m sure I’ll be fine.” Connor tried to reassure him, but he still seemed a bit freaked out at his own earlier reaction.

Gavin gave a huff of a laugh. “Yeah, I’m good here. Us humans tend to do a buddy system thing when we go out to party.”

“Like cops?” Connor looked intrigued.

“Yeah,” Gavin tried not to smirk “Tina and Chris are down there, so you’re stuck with me as your buddy. It’s a…”

“Safety protocol.” Connor finished for him. Connor gave a soft laugh when Gavin gave a nod. “Don’t you feel bad ditching Angie?”

“Who? The girl?” Connor gave him a ‘yeah-duh’ look and nodded. “Nah, she’s here to have fun, she’ll find someone else to dance with. Plus it’s not like I’m actually interested in her, she’s neat but I’m not looking for a wife.”

Connor made an odd face at that, but didn’t explain himself. “This has been a fascinating experience.” Connor began to bounce his leg. “I still have a lot of questions about human behavior though.” Connor tilted his head.

“Hey,” Gavin’s mouth was running past his brain. “Why don’t we play a game? You ask a question about humans and I’ll answer. Then I can ask you questions about androids.”

Connor seemed to mull it over before giving a short nod. “Why do social norms not apply here? Like personal space?”

Huh, Gavin should have expected that one. He scratched at his stubble before answering. “Sometimes humans like to feel close to others, and some people find it easier to do that with strangers than with people they have relationships with.” Gavin answered slowly. “Emotional attachment can be overwhelming for humans too sometimes, and some people find it easier to be close to people they don’t have an attachment to.” Gavin watched as Connor seemed to consider this answer his LED slowly spinning yellow. Gavin wanted to trace the flashing light with his finger. “Why do you still have your LED? You don’t legally have to have it anymore.” Gavin blurted out.

Connor looked back over to him, his eyes scanning Gavin. Gavin has no clue what Connor must have found on his face but he looks Gavin in the eyes before answering. “The way I see it, androids were removing their LED’s to hide from humans after becoming deviants or to identify as a human instead of an android.” Connor looked down at his bouncing leg. “When I became a deviant, there was no need to hide, after all I was the one the deviants were hiding from. Plus Hank often tells me I can pass for an awkward human on the best of days.” Connor looks back over to him and winks.

Gavin is so shocked at Connor’s teasing behavior he gives a short laugh. “You’re awkward alright.”

Connor’s lips were in a small amused smile and Gavin couldn’t find it in him to be angry at how much he liked it. “I know you hate the reminder that I’m an android, but I’m afraid it will be staying.” Connor tapped next to the LED. Gavin had to look away from Connor feeling guilty. “Gavin,” Connor’s calm voice made the detective whip his head back to him. “I’m teasing you.”

“I know!” Gavin felt embarrassed. “It’s actually pretty neat.” He slipped before he could catch himself. Gavin groaned out loud when Connor suddenly shifted so his whole body was facing Gavin.

“My turn for a question. Why do you find my LED interesting?” Connor still had his right arm over the back of the couch. His hand hovering near Gavin’s shoulder.

Gavin eyed Connor. “I didn’t say that. I said it was neat. You could also say Chris’s dance moves are neat.” He tried to throw Connor off but his usual animosity was nowhere to be found and Connor wasn’t shaken. “But, if you must know,” Gavin tried to ignore the cute nod Connor gave. “The LED is kind of like a tell. You can have a pretty good poker face or most of the time you look like a lost puppy going on its first walk. So instead you can look at it to guess what your processors are focusing on.”

Connor was watching him closely. Said LED switching between spinning yellow fast and slowly.

“What are you thinking about?” Gavin could barely be heard over the music.

“I believe it is my turn to ask a question detective.” Gavin had to look away as Connor leaned forward. “Do people often have extreme reactions to feeling attraction?”

If Gavin had been drinking something he would have spit it out. “Uh,” He couldn't seem to find the words he needed. He looked at Connor and remembered the hazy look in the other’s eyes as he helped him up the stairs. Connor had probably been aroused. And then overheated due to not knowing what the fuck to do. Gavin honestly would be laughing if the idea didn’t turn him on so much. Fuck. “Well, I guess when humans first start feeling it we do. It’s just that we are like early teenagers when we first feel it. By the time we hit our twenties or thirties we are usually used to it.” Gavin rubbed at the stubble on his face.

Connor seemed to have followed Gavin’s train of thought. “Since I’m so new to emotions, this would be my first time experiencing it, and my reaction is not too extreme.” Connor seemed lost in thought and Gavin wouldn’t be surprised if the android was replaying whatever caused it in his head.

“Hey Connor,” Gavin called, drawing those brown eyes back to him. “What was it that made you overheat back there?” He was intrigued when Connor seems shocked he would ask.

“I- I’d prefer not to answer that. That is a very personal question Detective!” Now that was an interesting response. The stammering was intriguing enough, but couple it with the android’s eyes flickering away and taking his arm off the back of the couch and using Gavin’s title to put distance, well Gavin almost laughed. He watched closely as he slowly leaned towards the android and tried to keep his smirk to a minimum.

“Ah, I don’t think that’s fair Connor.” Gavin threw his own arm over the back of the couch, his hand hovering just next to Connor’s shoulder, he knew Connor’s sensors could detect it. “Aw, come on, attraction in a place like this is normal. Nothing to get prude about.” Gavin couldn’t help but widen his smirk when he pictures Connor being embarrassed.

Gavin doesn’t have to picture it for long as Connor seems to stiffen at his words, body language screaming embarrassed. “It is embarrassing, especially after overreacting, and the fact that it is an inappropriate emotion in this case!” Connor’s voice is rushed and he seems to be avoiding Gavin’s face. The android’s words make him frown.

“Dude, it’s not inappropriate. You can’t control who you find attractive.” Gavin is confused on why Connor would find it inappropriate. Wouldn’t it be exciting to discover a new feeling? Unless… “You don’t have a weird thing about being gay or liking humans do you?” Gavin is watching him warily now. “I didn’t think android would be homophobic or uh, humanphobic I guess.”

“No!” Connor replies quickly finally meeting Gavin’s gaze. His eyes are wide and sincere with a bit of fear in them, and it confuses Gavin even more. “It’s not like that. I don’t find homosexual relationships gross or odd. Nor do I find humans unattractive.” He pauses looking down at his fidgeting hands. Why did the android fidget so much, Gavin thinks. “I- The attraction I felt earlier is inappropriate due to the person it was about.”

Gavin was still confused. “Look, I don’t know what to tell you.” Gavin ran the hand that wasn’t on the back of the couch through his hair. “I won’t judge though. I have had my fair share of embarrassing attractions.” When Connor looked back at Gavin, he couldn’t place the android's expression. Gavin had a moment of uncertainty that the android would have the curiosity to ask about what those attractions were. Good planning there Gavin, what was he going to say ‘oh, yeah I have found that I am attracted to your stupidly made perfect self.’ No.

Luckily Connor did not ask Gavin about anything else. Instead Chris and Tina had appeared at the loft level and made their way over to them. “Connor! There you are! Are you okay?” Tina stopped in front of him and leaned down to get a good look at him.

“Yes, I am okay now.” Connor was trying to appear nonchalant but Gavin could tell he was still embarrassed. “My systems overheated. Probably from the proximity of all the moving bodies downstairs.” Huh, so Connor wasn’t going to tell them about the attraction thing.

Chris seemed to nod in understanding. “Well Tina and I were hoping you were okay. And to call it a night. I gotta work tomorrow and I know Gavin does too.”

“Shit, I forgot.” Gavin leaned his head back on the couch. “I gotta drive to the southend too for a lead.”

Connor nodded and stood up. “Alright, this was an” Connor paused looking over the crowd before looking back at the three officers, “interesting experience.” Connor gave a lopsided smile. Why does an android have a lopsided smile? Who would think to make an android with imperfections? Why was it so adorable?

The group made their way downstairs and headed for the exit. Gavin felt a hand grab his wrist and pull. His instincts took over and he reared around to slug whoever it was but stopped when a familiar face was grinning at him.

“I didn’t think you’d be mad at me after our last encounter.”

Gavin nearly groaned. He didn’t need this tonight. In front of coworkers. In front of Connor. “No, you surprised me that’s all.” He hadn’t think he’d run into a random hookup tonight. “Look, I was just on my way out. I got work in the morning.” He tried to yank his arm free but the other man held firm.

“Oh, heading home? Take me with you. I’m bored of everyone here.” Dave(?) said. Gavin couldn’t really remember his name now. The man switched to wrapping an arm around him and pulling him close. “I’m drunk enough to let you have your way.”

Gavin didn’t even want to think about why he didn’t feel the normal rush of excitement he would feel at a proposition such as that. “Nah, I gotta go. I came here with other people.”

Dan(?) gave a huff of a laugh. “Piss poor excuse. Come on, let’s go, we haven’t seen each other in a while. I bet you forgot exactly what I can do with…” And suddenly the man wasn’t suffocating him as Gavin was tugged harshly by his shoulder. He looked over his shoulder and saw Connor standing on his left, and his hand on Gavin’s right shoulder.

“Sorry to interrupt but I’ll be taking Gavin home now.” The man seemed to be sizing Connor up and seemed to almost think it was worth a fight. After all he was taller than Connor and had more muscle mass, but backed down once he noticed the LED.

“Ok, fine but call me soon yeah?” He stepped forward and grabbed Gavin’s chin. “Just in case you want to remember that _real_ flesh feels better.” He gave Gavin’s chin a shake and walked away into the crowd.

Gavin tried not to notice that Connor’s arm felt warm through the fabric of his shirt. He shrugged him off. “Let’s go.” He headed to the coat closet where they found Tina and Chris.

He shrugged off their questions with short answers and they made their way to the car. Gavin listened quietly as the other three talked about the night. Meanwhile he was wrapped in his head. Flashes of Connor’s face at the bar, the way he danced, how he leaned against Gavin as they went upstairs. His brain unhelpfully added a daydream of how Connor dancing with him would feel thanks to how he now knows what the android felt against his side. The expressions on the android’s face as they talked on the couch. It was so vastly different from when he first met the android but then again, was it really? Connor acted like no other android Gavin had ever met. Hell, he had been snarky to Gavin that first day in the breakroom. He looked over at Connor who was excitedly talking about his observations, and Gavin sighed at the revelation. It wasn’t immediate and world changing like the movies showed. It had been as slow as the cold weather creeping back to the state when October came, and just as undeniable. When they made it back to his apartment, Tina and Connor dropped him and Chris off before leaving.

“Alright, what’s got you?” Chris nudged his shoulder.

“Ah, it was nothing. Ran into a hookup at the end there, Connor stepped in.” Gavin huffed. “He shouldn’t have. I was just about to walk away.”

Chris gave a short chuckle before rubbing the back of his neck. “I don’t know if this means anything, but we were all at the coat room when we noticed you were gone. Connor scanned the room and took off the second he found you. You think he was going after a perp.”

Gavin looked up at the sky. “Yeah I don’t know what to do with that information.”

“Did you find out any information on yourself?”

Gavin almost tried to play stupid, but he knew what Chris was implying. “Yeah,” He heaved another sigh. “I find him frustratingly interesting.”

“Just interesting?” Chris’s voice held no malice or sarcasm.

“And stupidly attractive.”

Chris snorted at him. “Honestly, I’d be more worried if you didn’t. He was kinda designed for that.” Chris tried to hide a smile as Gavin made a noncommittal scoff. “Do you know what you want to do next?”

“Nope.”

“Alright,” Chris conceded. He clapped a hand on Gavin’s shoulder. “Just, don’t put your walls back up. I think you’d hurt him if ya did. I think he finds you interesting too.” Chris gives his shoulder a squeeze before he is walking back to his car.

“Night.” Gavin calls as he heads into the building.

Gavin’s is greeted by a loudly meowing feline. He swears the damn cat is the loudest thing he’s ever known. “Alright, hold on you dipshit.” He tries not to trip on the cat as it weaves between his legs into the kitchen. He has to move the cat’s face out of the bowl so he can put food into it. He leans against the counter as the cat begins munching happily. “Hey,” He says softly nudging the cat with his foot. “Why the hell are you so friendly to the android? Chris has known you your whole life and you’re a dick to him.” The cat expectedly ignores him. “Do you see something special too?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> COME YELL AT HOW I WROTE THE CHAPTER AT ME ON TUMBLR (notnowbro or notnowbroimfangirling)


	4. Too close for comfort

Gavin went to work the next morning like any other morning. He was glad that Connor had Saturday off. That way he wouldn’t be distracted. Wrong. Gavin had daydreamed about Connor a total of 8 times that shift. At least the lead Gavin had led to some progress. Now he had a list of names to follow up on. Looking at the names Gavin almost sighed out loud as he realized he should ask Anderson about some of them. Anderson was the leading detective on the drug task force before Gavin got promoted. Asking Anderson meant not only trying to play nice and hope the old man still had enough fucks to give Gavin some information, but it would also mean that he would have to interact with Connor.

Which, in theory, Gavin supposes isn’t bad. And he missed watching the android work today. Then again, in theory, he hasn’t had an actual conversation with the android since he finally resigned himself to being…interested in the android. Gavin leaned forward on his desk, staring blankly at his computer screen. What would he do when he does talk to Connor? There was no way he could tell the android. Nope, he definitely couldn’t. But he also couldn’t avoid Connor or start pushing him away again. He may be an asshole, but Gavin didn’t want to make those brown eyes sad. Fuck, just thinking about it stung. He sighed as he realized he wasn’t going to get anymore work done, and he had 10 minutes in his shift left. Gavin collected his things and went home for the day. Once home he felt the hours drag on until he finally decided what he would do tomorrow. He would act like nothing happened. Just be normal, still talk to Connor normally, and still go to lunch if he was invited. Yeah it would be like nothing happened.

Trying to build up good vibes, Gavin stopped at his favorite coffee spot the next morning. He noticed he was actually early to work (for once) so Gavin stopped by Chris’s desk. “Hey, how was the shift?” Gavin leaned against his desk.

Chris picked his head up from where he had it on the desk. “Eh, not too bad. A few idiots, but that’s Detroit.” The cop shot him a rueful smile. “I got one lady, off the rails drunk, called in a 911 because the convenience store she wanted to go into had an android working at the counter. As Phillips and I try to explain that she can go somewhere else, she said that she wouldn’t and sat down in front of the door.” Gavin snorted imagining the scene. “Well Phillips being the smartass he is, says to her ‘Well I don’t know where you’ve been but androids have been running retail since the early 2030’s’ She tried to deck him for that one, launching into a whole rant about it. She’s in holding for another 5 hours.”

“Wow, sounds like a fun shift. I guess I’m missing all the fun as a detective now.” Gavin smirked.

“Oh, please you have no regrets. Especially since now you get to moon over Connor from across the room.” Chris chuckled and elbowed him.

“Whatever, that’s not all I do.” Gavin glared at his desk from across the room. “Hey, I’m uh, going to keep that quiet. I just want everything to stay the way it is.” Gavin chanced a glance at the other.

Chris just gave him an understanding smile and a nod. “Aye, Aye Captain.”

“I can’t hear you.” Gavin grinned.

“Aye, aye Captain!” Chris shouted.

Gavin laughed and smacked his arm. “You fucking dork!” He jumped away from Chris’s desk to avoid retaliation.

“You started it!” Chris yelled after him.

Gavin smiled to himself as he approached his desk and sat down. He looked up and froze when he saw Connor already sitting there watching him. Connor’s brown eyes were wide and curious, but he gave a small smile and waved after a moment. Gavin felt his face heat up considerably. Had Connor just seen all of that? Had he heard? Androids had really good hearing right? Oh shit. Gavin couldn’t move his face to reciprocate a smile, but his hand lifted in a greeting and he turned to his computer to drown in work. Gavin wanted to crawl under his desk. Wait what was he, 17? Shit.

Gavin had gotten through an hour and a half of work before he found himself needing a break. He propped his feet up on his desk and grabbed his phone. He was going to scroll through Instagram when his eyes drifted up to Connor. The android was currently scrolling through case files. His eyes were tracing the text, his mouth slightly ticked to one side in concentration. Anderson must have snapped Connor out of his focus, because the Android blinked and looked over to the old man. And then Connor looked right at Gavin. SHIT. Gavin felt his face heat up and quickly looked back down at his phone. He can’t let himself ‘moon’ over Connor. Not in person. Even if Anderson hadn’t alerted the android, he would have noticed him. Don’t androids have like sensors or some shit? One as advanced as Connor must. Still looking at his phone screen Gavin had an idea. Connor is a public figure now because of the revolution. There had to be fan blogs right?

Taking a deep breath, Gavin opened Instagram and went to the search tab. Would just Connor work? Probably not, Connor definitely sounded like a thirst trap name. Instead he typed ‘RK800’ into the bar and clicked search. One part of Gavin wanted to be concerned with the amount of candid photos. Another part of him was intrigued. And then there were also the fan edits. Videos with music that looped. Gavin knew he could rely on obsessed people to create blogs like this. Gavin began scrolling, careful not to like any of the photos. He didn’t need them being ‘recommended’ to anyone who followed him.

Most of the photos were of Connor during the revolution. Him standing proudly in the snow, hundreds or thousands of androids following him. When he stood up on the podium with the other androids. Those Gavin quickly scrolled past. He had seen these events first hand. But what did catch his eye was a bunch of very candid photos. Connor in jeans and a t-shirt walking Anderson’s massive dog. Connor in a DPD sweatshirt that was no doubt Anderson’s as him and the old man were at that stupid Chicken Feed truck. Pictures of Connor in t-shirt and jeans looking to be casually conversing with that android leader. Gavin frowned at that photo. The other android had one hand on Connor’s arm and the other on his shoulder as they both were laughing. Despite still having that LED, Connor looked more human, with his crinkled eyes and lopsided grin. The other android a spitting image of what GQ wanted to put on all their magazines. Gavin felt even more pissed as he found more photos. None as close as the laughing one, but Connor and this android leader seemed to hang out quite a bit. Gavin involuntarily glared at the android across from him. He stopped himself before anyone could notice.

Gavin tossed his phone on the table as he stood up, grumbling as he made his way to the bathroom. He took a piss and was drying his hands as Anderson walked in. Gavin looked up to give him a nod in greeting when he was suddenly thrown back against the bathroom wall. “Whoa, what the fuck?”

Anderson was on him in a heartbeat, grabbing him by the collar and pushing his fists into Gavin’s throat. “What the fuck happened Friday night? Huh, you perv? What happened?”

What the fuck? Gavin voiced as much. “What the hell Anderson? I don’t know what you’re talking about, let me go!” Gavin had his hands on Anderson’s shoulders trying to push him away. The man looked more furious than Gavin had ever seen him. Shit he better be careful. Anderson did punch an FBI agent recently.

“Oh yeah?” Anderson shouted. He leaned towards Gavin and his voice dropped. “If nothing happened, why is he coming home and asking me about what attraction feels like and how to express it? If nothing happened why am I hearing about you ‘rescuing’ him when he overheated? If nothing happened why is he asking me why real flesh might feel better than synthetic?”

Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit. Connor had only told him parts, and Anderson misunderstood. The panic must have shown on his face because Anderson’s patience was wearing thin, Gavin felt the hands press harder. “OK, ok! Whoa, whoa, hold on!” Gavin threw his hands in the air in surrender. “Listen, no one put hands on Connor, you have my word.” That seemed to cool the other man as the hands relaxed a fraction. “The attraction thing was related to the overheating. He said he felt warm and was looking weird, so I pulled him to a couch to rest. I sat next to him to make sure he was okay. He was explaining what happened before he overheated and it just sounded like someone being overwhelmed by a sudden burst of arousal. I don’t know man! I’ve never seen something like that happen! It was as new to me as it was for Connor!” The hands at Gavin’s neck loosened a bit more and the Lieutenant looked pissed instead of furious. “As for the flesh thing, I ran into an old hookup at the bar as we left, he got handsy with ME, and Connor jumped in and pulled him off. It gave the wrong impression to the guy and he made some dumbass comment about how ‘real flesh is best’.” Gavin kept his hands in the air.

“That’s your word? Where was Tina and Chris?” Anderson asked.

“That’s my word. Tina and Chris were drunk dancing with some vacationers.” Gavin felt the hands let him go. As he felt his shirt ride up as he slid down the wall did he even realize Anderson must have hoisted him up a bit. Yikes, he didn’t know the old man was still so strong.

“Look, thanks for looking after him.” Anderson had his arms crossed and was barely looking at Gavin. “I know you hate him, but he’s new to this world and I’m struggling to let him go in it.”

“Its fine, I get it.” Gavin took a deep breath. “He’s not so bad when he’s not being snarky.”

Anderson gave a huff. “He gets that from me.” Then as if they both remembered who they were talking to, they snapped out of whatever weird bonding moment was happening and Anderson stalked out of the bathroom.

“Hey, sorry Gavin for trying to strangle you for helping my robot son not fall down the stairs in an arousal-drunk state!” Gavin said to himself. Shit. He was still frowning as he got back to his desk. He didn’t dare look up. He didn’t want to look at Connor to see if he heard, or if anyone else heard. He’s sure the drunk and disorderly lady Chris told him about heard.

Gavin makes it to two o’ clock as he finishes leftover paperwork or catches up until he hits a roadblock. All he has left to do is look into the list of names he got yesterday, which means talking to Anderson. Gavin mulls it over for about two minutes before deciding that it wouldn’t hurt to check in with him. He heaves a sigh as he stands up and walks over to Connor and Anderson.

They both eye him immediately and he feels likes he walking to the front door to pick up a date. Which is ridiculous, he’s not even here to talk to Connor. Or ask for a date let alone go on one. Gavin makes sure to stand closer to Anderson’s desk. “Hey And- Lieutenant Anderson,” Gavin is trying here. “I have a list of names for a Red Ice case I’m working on. I was wondering if you had any extra information about any of them.” Gavin watches as the gruff man leans back in his chair, arms crossed as he eyes Gavin. He also tries to ignore Connor’s curious gaze on him.

“Yeah, what names you got?” Anderson gives a sigh, holding out his hand for the paper Gavin’s holding. Gavin tries not to give a sigh of relief as he hands it over.

Anderson proved to be extremely helpful. Some of the names he had were street names, and the old man helped him identify who they were and their local hangouts. Gavin had just finished taking notes and was getting ready to go back to his desk when Anderson stops him. “Hey, I could talk to a few of ‘em if you want. Still have decent rapport.” Anderson huffed, not looking at Gavin.

Gavin took a moment to recover from the shock. Anderson hadn’t volunteered to help other detectives with cases in years. His eyes flickered over to the android that probably was the cause for Anderson’s increased work ethic. He looked back at Anderson. “Uh, thanks. I appreciate the offer, but I think I got this. I was going to have Seymour help me.” Gavin was about to walk away before he thought better of it. “Thanks Lieutenant.” Then he walked away. Gavin grabbed Seymour and the two headed out. Thanks to Hank’s advice, Gavin and Seymour were able to nab, two of the guys they were looking for.

Gavin excitedly strolled into the department expecting to see Connor and show him how good at his job Gavin was. Gavin deflated upon realizing Connor and Anderson went out to a crime scene. He tossed the perps in separated cells. He’d get to them after he completed his paperwork. He was halfway through the second perp’s paperwork when his phone rang. Glancing over he noticed it was Chris.

“What is it?” Gavin answered immediately.

The sirens in the background almost drowned out Chris, but he could hear him. “Gavin, I need you to run over to first aide, and grab few bottles of the blue blood we keep. Bring them to interrogation room A.”

“Dude, what the hell?” Gavin was alarmed. Why does Chris sound freaked? And blue blood would only be for… “Chris what the hell happened?”

“I’ll fill you in when we get there.” Chris answered. Gavin heard Anderson’s voice in the background shout “I’ve got the roads cleared.” Before the line went dead. What the fuck? Gavin couldn’t even begin imagining what might have happened, he’d only freak himself out.

Shaking himself off, he went to the room where they kept the first aide, and pulled out two bottles of the blue blood they kept in a mini fridge in the room. Gavin looked around the room to see if maybe something else would be needed. He stared at the room for a half minute before grabbing a small first-aid kit and a comfort blanket. He took it all the interrogation room A. He put the bottles in the interrogation room along with the folded comfort blanket. He set down the first-aid kit and went out to the main room. He had just reached the bullpen when he heard to commotion. There was all sorts of shouting, but mostly Anderson. “Chen and Collins are on their way with the assholes. They go in separate rooms and no one goes in until I say so!” Gavin hadn’t even made it half way across the room before he froze at the sight.

Chris and Anderson were carrying a limp Connor between them. He had one arm slung over each of their shoulders, but his head hung down. Gavin felt sick as he noticed the android’s feet were dragging. They rushed past him to the interrogation room. Gavin met Chris’s eyes, and his suspicion of panic was evident in his eyes. Gavin wished he didn’t even see Anderson’s face. The man was terrified.

Gavin followed after them into the room. He hung back inside the door and they leaned Connor against the table. Anderson held Connor upright as Chris grabbed a Cyberlife bottle. “Ok bud, drink up. Can you do it or do you need help?” Chris held it in front of him, guiding the android’s hand to the bottle. Gavin watched horrified as Connor’s hand didn’t grasp the bottle. Anderson looked like he was about to scream. Chris just held the bottle and tipped Connor’s head back and brought it to his lips. Gavin felt even more nauseous when he noticed Connor’s eyes were blank and unmoving.

Once the bottle was empty Chris moved to get the other bottle and Connor moved his head on his own. His eyes blinked a few times.

“Time?” Anderson gruffly asked.

“35 minutes and 16 seconds.” Connor panted, his voice sounding more robotic than ever.

“Will more blue blood help?” Chris moved back to them with the other bottle.

Connor nodded. “I will need to keep the supply steady. If I do I will be good until he gets here.” Connor resumed drinking the blue blood independently now.

“Okay, I’ll get you a few more bottles.” Chris said, calm voice betraying the panic Gavin heard earlier. Meanwhile, Gavin had noticed Connor’s state. The front of Connor’s shirt was stained with blue blood. The light blue liquid had consumed the pristine white of Connor’s shirt. What the fuck? Isn’t that where the Thirium pump is supposed…

Chris snapped him out of his thoughts by clapping a hand on his shoulder. “Walk with me.” Chris dragged him out of the room, and Gavin numbly followed.

“What the hell happened?” Gavin asked, voice just above a whisper.

Chris gave sigh. “They have been following a series of murders involving human/android couples.” They reached the first aid room and Chris handed Gavin another blanket to hold and a towel. “Connor suspected it was a group of humans. And it was alright. Damn group set up the scene they went to tonight as bait. They surrounded them. Connor supposedly took a few bullets getting him and Hank to safety.”

“Shit. Then what’s the blue blood on Connor’s shirt.”

Chris grabbed two more bottles of the liquid and seemed to consider grabbing a third. “One of them was operating an old warehouse mech. He got the drop on Connor and grabbed him with one of the claws. And squeezed. If Fritz and I hadn’t showed up when we did. It would have killed Connor.” Gavin hated the serious expression on his old partner’s face. Gavin followed Chris back to the room Connor was in. Now the android was sitting on the table, the other bottle empty now. Chris placed the bottles he had on the table. He then took the blanket from Gavin and spread it out on the table, leaving the one Gavin grabbed as a makeshift pillow. Was the android going to sleep here? “You doing okay dude?” Chris asked the android.

“I will be fine for now.” Connor answered, voice sounding slightly back to normal. A little ragged, and out of breathe, but not…static sounding.

Chris nodded. “Alright, I’m going to check in with EMT’s and Tina. Keep me posted okay?” Chris walked out of the room. Gavin still was frozen just inside the door.

“Hank,” Connor put a hand on the man’s arm. “You should go get looked at by the EMT’s as well. I know you hit your head and a bullet grazed your left shin.”

“Shut up kid,” Anderson huffed. Gavin felt like he should leave. “I ain’t going nowhere.”

“I would like you to get looked at before he shows up. I know you won’t want to leave the room when he does.” Connor tried to reason. “For my own mental state at least.” That seemed to move the older man.

“Someone should be with you. You have no self-preservation.”

“Gavin could keep me company!” Connor sent him a smile and Gavin couldn’t move. Anderson looked him over before huffing and moving away from the table Connor was sitting on.

“The second something goes weird, or he looks out of it, you get me.” The old man pointed at Gavin. He was only able to give a faint nod, but it seemed enough as the lieutenant left the room.

“Gavin,” Connor called his name so softly. “Can I have the towel you’re holding?”

“Uh, yeah.” Gavin walked to him and gave him the towel. He grabbed one of the chairs that was in the room and sat down. He almost stood right back up though when Connor started unbuttoning his shirt. “Wh-What are you doing?”

Connor looked at him with a confused face. “I am taking off my shirt. I can’t clean the Thirium with a soaked shirt.” Connor still watched him curiously as he continued to unbutton the shirt.

Shit, Gavin’s had dreams about this. A few actually. Usually, he was the one leaning on the table and Connor was on his knees. Or there was that other one where Connor was doing exactly what he was doing now, except it revealed the android in lingerie. Oh fuck, he needed not to daydream right now. A “True.” was what Gavin managed to rasp out.

Connor finally looked away as he shrugged his shirt off completely. Gavin didn’t need anything else to refocus his attention. The damage was fully visible now the shirt was gone. Without the shirt Gavin could see the Thirium was in fact leaking out of where the pump was. That can’t be good. There were long scratches that went across Connor’s sides, revealing his white exoskeleton underneath the synthetic skin. The pattern reminding Gavin of a pair of vice grips. It didn’t look to be healing itself. Wasn’t that something these androids were supposed to do?

“Why are your sides not healing?” Gavin couldn’t stop the question.

Connor didn’t pause from wiping away the rest of the blue blood. “I had to turn that feature off to reserve my processors and Thirium.” Connor held the towel over his pump, probably to keep it from leaking more.

“Shit,” Gavin murmured. “How bad is it?”

Connor looked at him and Gavin would bet he was deciding on withholding information from him. The thought hurt for some reason. “I have structural damage to my frame. I also have a few broken Thirium tubes which are leaking into my system. I currently am trying to heal those first to stop the loss of Thirium. My pump is also damaged due to the structural damage.”

Gavin took a deep breath to steady himself, he felt his heart hammering in fear. “Shit, Connor that must be painful.” Gavin looked into the androids face.

Connor got a weird soft smile on his face. “It did hurt at first. The shock of it almost overloaded my sensors. My system automatically dialed down my sensitivity until I completely shut it off to reserve power.” Gavin knew Connor was staring at him, but he couldn’t stop staring at the gashes in the android’s side. “If you are off put by my appearance, you don’t have to stay.” Connor’s voice was soft.

Gavin’s eyes shot up to look at the android’s face. He looked uncomfortable. Gavin noticed he tried to move the towel to cover the gashes. “No,” Gavin leaned forward in the chair, resting his forearms on his knees. If he reached out his arm, he could touch Connor’s leg. “I’m only uncomfortable with the idea of you in so much pain.” Gavin noticed the curious look in Connor’s eye. Shit, perfect detective. “I mean you’re so new to this emotions thing, it just sucks that you have to experience such an awful one.” Gavin was proud he didn’t stutter.

“Alright,” Anderson’s voice was heard before they saw him. A second later he entered the room, followed by two faces Gavin never wanted to see until Thanksgiving.

Elijah Kamski and his Chloe android.

Gavin nearly put his face into his hands. What the fuck? Why did he deserve this?

“Connor!” Elijah greeted him with a snake like smile. “And Gavin, good to see you again.” This time Gavin actually did groan out loud. Nope he couldn’t do this. He stood up and walked out of the room. Once out of sight of the doorway he paused. Should he go back to his desk to get work done? Hell no. He turned into the observation room. He was surprised to see Chris was already in there.

“What the hell you doing in here?” Gavin muttered sitting next to him.

“Ah, didn’t want to intrude or nothing so I’d though I’d chill here.” Gavin ignored the smirk on his friend’s face.

“Ha. Ha.” He said sarcastically. “Why him?”

Chris gave a shrug. “Anderson called him, as soon as Connor gave him a damage report.” Chris paused and Gavin tried to brace himself. “Connor said back at the scene he only had 28 minutes until ‘complete system shutdown’. It was scary. You know I’ve driven dying people before, but they can’t tell you exactly long they have. It was scary. Every car on the road made me panic even more.”

Gavin was speechless. By the time they got to the precinct, Connor must have only had 10 minutes left… “That’s…That’s rough. I’m sorry man.” Gavin’s brain refocused on the room through the window. Connor was listening to Kamski speak, occasionally answering questions. Anderson was standing next to where Connor sat but other than that he was quiet. The Chloe android was setting up a machine and instruments on a folding cart she must have brought with her. Ah, Kamski was here to fix Connor. And Kamski, he had shrugged his jacket off and Chloe put a lab coat on him. His stupid hair was up in that bun and his glasses securely on his face. He was intensely calm and focused. It almost reminded Gavin of a doctor. Then Chloe came over and was given instructions. Gavin couldn’t stop the laugh that bubbled out.

“What the hell are you laughing about?” Chris looked over at him, more curious than judgmental.

“Nothing, just the contrast in that room.” When Chris still didn’t seem to get it, Gavin elaborated. “You got the most advanced android ever made by Cyberlife and the very first android ever made in the same room.”

“What? That’s the original Chloe?” Chris’s voice held interest in it and Gavin watched the man lean forward in his seat out of the corner of his eye.

“Yup. Kamski keeps her with him at all times.” Gavin answered. All times. Gavin has had Thanksgiving dinner with the android ever since she was built.

Chris was quiet for a moment and Gavin waited for the question he knew would come. “Why do you know that?”

Gavin was silent for a moment debating on answering. He watched as Connor laid back on the table and Kamski opened a panel on his chest. He took a pair of long tongs and a small cloth and began rummaging. Probably cleaning out the thirium Connor mentioned earlier. “Elijah Kamksi is my cousin.”

“No fucking way.” Chris was fully turned towards him.

“Yup, while I’m barely passing algebra, he’s going off to college. While I’m graduating high school, he was releasing the Chloe android and starting a multi-billion dollar company.” Gavin huffed.

“Do you hate him?” Chris asked quietly.

And it made Gavin pause. He watched Kamski work quietly over the android. Sometimes he would say something too quiet for them to hear and Chloe would hand him another tool or cloth. “No. I hate androids because my parents. I mean we were cousins, but Elijah was the preferred child. Nothing I did mattered. My dad rolled his eyes when I joined the police academy.” Gavin could only chuckle at the memory, it being too old of a thought to cause pain anymore. “I couldn’t hate Elijah because despite the obvious differences, he was a good cousin. I just hated his creations because it put a wedge in between me and my parents.”

Gavin heard Chris mutter a quiet “Shit”

Gavin gave a weak laugh, trying to ease the tension. “They still think they will get some of his fortune if they play nice. You should see how sweet they are to Chloe at Thanksgiving. It’s actually amusing now.”

“Hey,” Chris gently smacked his arm. “You know how I got that one cousin who’s a tennis player? Every year my parents try to get her to invite the Williams sisters. And every year they try to hide their disappointment when they don’t show up. Odelle tries to tell them she doesn’t know them personally every year but they don’t listen.”

Gavin actually did laugh at that. “What the hell? They haven’t even played in like twenty years.”

“That’s what I tell them!” Chris says exasperatedly. Gavin and Chris sat there and talked for what felt like a long time as Elijah worked on Connor.

“Alright Connor,” Elijah’s voice grabbed everyone’s attention. “I’m done with the internal work. Stay laying down, the pump needs to not move. We’re just waiting on the printer to finish the new one up. Let Chloe know if there are any problems.” Elijah walked out of the room.

Gavin watched as Chloe took the space Elijah had just left. “How have you been Connor?” She asked quietly. What the hell? She was going to converse with him? Gavin had never seen Chloe initiate conversation. He thought about the possibility of her deviating, but she acted as she always has.

“I’m fine now. A lot more of my systems are able to come back online now that shutdown is not so imminent.” Connor answered back quietly. Gavin stood up and leaned against the glass. Even Anderson looked intrigued.

“Where do you live now?” She asked.

“I live with the lieutenant. He invited me to stay with him after the revolution. We even have a dog named Sumo,” Connor excitedly told the other android who looked to be listening with interest. Gavin watched Connor explain, sometimes waving his hands and gesturing for emphasis. Gavin knew he had a dumb smile on his face, and luckily Chris hadn’t said anything about it.

The door opening in the observation room made both officers jump. Elijah Kamksi entered the room. “Hello, Gavin.” Elijah turned to Chris. “And?”

“Officer Chris Miller.” Chris stood to shake the engineer’s hand.

“Elijah Kamski.” Gavin’s cousin greeted back. He turned to Gavin again. “Your coworkers told me I could find you here.” Elijah moved to stand next to Gavin, and watched the two androids talking in the other room. They were now talking about clothing and a new store opening for androids. “Are you laughing at the sight before you too?” Elijah said with a small smirk.

Gavin rolled his eyes. They never really talked about androids before, Elijah seeming to know to stay away from the subject. “You mean the irony of your earliest android and your most sophisticated android having a casual conversation about…” Gavin paused to listen for a moment. “Plants?” He raised an eyebrow.

Elijah let out a short laugh. “Yes and no. While Chloe is the earliest successful model of androids, I had no part in creating Connor.” Gavin didn’t like the wistful tone in his voice and it made his chest tighten.

“Why did they bring you in? Why didn’t they go to Cyberlife or one of the repair shops?” Gavin looked over at his cousin.

Elijah looked back over at him for a moment. He seemed to decide on something and looked back at the androids in the next room. “I don’t know how well you follow the news, but Connor is Cyberlife’s second greatest enemy, right after me of course.” There was that smirk again. “Cyberlife would either turn him away or reset him.”

The thought punched Gavin right in the stomach. The thought of Connor being completely erased. No more snarky comments, or random facts about animals, or…Gavin kept looking at the android, trying to quell his anxiety. Connor was fine, he was now talking about other Chloes? What the hell?

“Anderson, called me hoping I could fix him.” Elijah continued. “I couldn’t say no. Connor is the first android that has piqued my interest since Chloe.” Gavin definitely didn’t like that statement.

“I’m going to check in with Tina, let her know how our Robocop buddy is doing.” Chris muttered, leaving the room.

“Why are you in here?” Elijah asked into the quiet room. There was no demand just calm curiosity.

Gavin decided to lie. “Just want to make sure a coworker is okay.” He ignored the side eye Elijah gave him.

“Do you spend any recreational time with this coworker?”

 “He’s within my circle now.” Gavin grunted. Giving half-assed answers was a family specialty.

Elijah gave a hum. “Should I expect to see him at Thanksgiving next year?” His cousin teased.

“Hell no.”

Elijah actually chuckled at that. “Eh, I’d imagine it would be hard to get him away from daddy dearest in there. Especially not Family’s First Thanksgiving.”

“What the hell are you talking about?” Gavin glanced over at his cousin staring intently into the other room.

“Oh, do they not have a father/son relationship? I didn’t expect the lieutenant to think of Connor like that…” Elijah trailed off and began leaving the room, waving for Gavin to follow him.

Gavin didn’t like that train of thought. “Hey, hey, listen not ever one wants to fuck robots Elijah.” Gavin followed him out of the room. They turned into the interrogation room where Connor, Chloe, and Anderson were.

“Oh you’d be surprised Gavin.” Elijah had a smirk as he entered the room. Gavin followed him in but stopped just inside the doorway.

“Surprised by what?” Connor tried to sit up. Gavin tried to ignore the puppy look on his face. Chloe pushed him back down on the table.

“Nothing” Gavin replied at the same time Elijah responded “By how many people prefer to have sexual relations with androids.”

“An interesting topic of conversation.” Anderson spoke up eyeing Gavin. He glared back at the man.

“Now Connor, I’m going to replace your thirium pump. You’re going to get your normal error messages until I put the new one in.” Elijah was back to Connor’s side at the table. Chloe was taking a device out of a large box. Ah, Gavin thought, of course the man would bring his own 3-d printer. “You’re system will take a minute to reboot, but you should be fine after. We’ll run some diagnostics after you are awake.” Elijah had the pump in one hand and his other opened the panel on Connor’s sternum. “Ready?”

“Ready.” Connor answered.

Elijah looked perfectly calm as he twisted the old pump. It made a scraping sound that seemed to worry everyone in the room. “Chloe.” The android immediately handed him a tool that he began using on the open cavity. “Shit.” He passed the new pump to Chloe, and grabbed another tool from her. “Shit”

“Kamski!” Anderson now was out of his chair, grabbing onto Connor’s arm. “What the hell!” His tone set Gavin on edge.

“Please calm down, Lieutenant Anderson.” Chloe intervened. “It’s just expected damage.” Just as Chloe finished her sentence, Elijah grabbed the pump from her hand and inserted it. Connor jolted and gasped like he had been electrocuted. And then appeared to fall asleep. Gavin looked between the others in room. Anderson looked concerned, but not angry, and Elijah and Chloe looked as calm as ever.

“He’s fine. Just rebooting now.” Elijah said packing his tools away.

“What the hell was that? Why didn’t you mention it before you took the pump out?” Anderson looks pissed again.

Elijah looked as calm and collected as he did at all his interviews. “I didn’t deem it important. The pump was already damaged due to damage surrounding it. It scraping the sides of the chamber was expected.” Gavin could tell Anderson was about to tell him how important it was when Connor began blinking. “RK800, State your name.” Elijah leaned over him to look at the android’s face.

“Connor.” The android rasped out, placing a hand over his chest. Anderson began to help him sit up.

“You good kid?” Hank was gripping his shoulder.

“Yeah, I’m good now.” Connor looked down at his chest. His hand patted the place where his pump was. Then he looked over the scratches. They started to glow a faint blue and Gavin could see the skin start to sew back together.

“Alright let’s run some diagnostics. You took quite a beating.” Elijah pulled out a tablet with a cord attached to one end. “Arm please.” Connor held out his arm. Elijah ran his hand along Connor’s arm and a panel was exposed. Connor flinched and gave a chuckle. When Elijah looked up to him with a raised eyebrow, Connor rushed to explain.

“It tickled.”

Everyone in the room was silent for a moment.

“Tickled?” Elijah asked, disbelief evident in his voice.

“Yes,” Connor looked unsure. “It tingled. I’m sure it was close to the feeling humans have when tickled.” Connor began to pull his arm towards him.

Gavin could see Elijah’s face and his chest tightened again. His cousin had interest plastered across his face. The curiosity plain on his face, just like when he brought Chloe over to Thanksgiving for the first time.

“Connor would you indulge me?” Elijah asked. He didn’t wait for Connor to respond. “You can feel temperature yes?” Connor nodded. “And you can feel pressure when I do this.” Elijah grabbed his forearm again. Connor nodded. “And what does this feel like?” Elijah brushed his arm up the length of Connor’s stopping at the androids shoulder.

“I’m not sure, but your hands are a bit cold.” Connor looked confused.

Elijah just appraised him for a moment. “Connor you feel pain now yes?” Elijah pinched his arm.

Connor made a noise of surprise, hand flying up to cover where he was pinched. “Yes! I felt that now and I definitely felt pain earlier, I just turned that program off before you showed up.” Connor looked defensive. Gavin didn’t like this.

Elijah’s hand dropped to Connor’s thigh and Gavin’s stomach dropped with it. “So you also can feel pleasure?”

“I- In theory.” Connor stammered.

“In theory?”

“I don’t know for certain because I haven’t exactly experienced it before.” Connor was watching the hand on his leg.

The hand moved higher. “Would you like to?”

“Enough,” Anderson’s deep voice spooked the room. Gavin hadn’t even noticed he had taken a step towards his cousin and the android.  

“Easy Elijah, I will cuff you for assaulting an officer.” Gavin bit out.

Gavin wanted to smack Elijah upside the head as he raised his hand in surrender. “My bad. Got carried away.” Elijah turned back to his tablet, plugging in the other end of the cord into the open panel on Connor’s arm. “Connor, your ability to feel sensations like that is one of a kind. I had only just started experimenting it with Markus’s model. Even newer pleasure android models aren’t equipped with such sophisticated features, and they would have the most use for them.” Elijah looked up from the tablet to look at Connor. “Why would a detective android need that?”

“I’m not sure. I didn’t even know I had the feature until I deviated.” Connor looked just as confused.

Elijah gave a quite hum. “Can you run a diagnostic for me?” Connor nodded and Elijah was glued to the tablet, scrolling through data. “Connor, did you recently overheat?” Elijah looked back up at him.

“Oh,” Gavin saw Connor’s eyes flicker over to him for a second before looking at his (always) fidgeting hands. “Um, yes. I went out to a club and overheated. Probably due to too many bodies in the area.”

Elijah glanced back at Gavin, and the detective had a feeling Elijah knew more than him about the incident. Which was impossible Elijah hadn’t even been there. “Uh-huh…” the inventor said after a moment. Gavin felt relief when Elijah dropped it. He couldn’t even begin to imagine the unrestrained curiosity his cousin would have if he found out the reason Connor overheated. Or if Elijah would keep his hands to himself if he saw Connor in such a state. The predatory look he gave Connor now, Gavin couldn’t tell if Elijah wanted to open him up or eat him up.

“Is there any chance you and Detective Reed are related, Elijah?” Connor blurted out.

“What?” Gavin snapped and the android looked over at him in surprise. “Did you scan me?” The android had the audacity to look sheepish, which was unfairly adorable.

“Yes, we are.” Elijah confirmed. “Cousins.”

“What the hell?” Anderson looked shocked. Gavin waited for some snarky android comment. “Huh, now it makes sense why you’re an ass. It runs in the family.” Gavin glared at the lieutenant and rolled his eyes. And then the old man and Connor burst out laughing.

Gavin caught Connor’s eyes and raised one hand in a ‘what the hell?’ expression. “I- I’m sorry Detective Reed.” Connor tried to reign in his laughter. “But you and Elijah made the same face and then rolled your eyes at the same time.”

“I think we’ve run most diagnostics now. We just need to test your evidence analyzer.” Elijah looked up at Connor again. “We don’t have anything to test though. I guess we could just use my finger.” The man waved his pointer finger closer to Connor’s face.

Gavin’s jaw nearly hit the floor when Connor’s mouth popped open. “Connor no!” Gavin was staring at the android incredulously who looked shocked at Gavin's outburst.

“Oh I guess you do need a sample of something. How about we French and you tell me what I drank last?” Elijah waggled his eyebrows.

“Elijah…” Gavin warned.

“I’m kidding! No need for the stern voice.” Elijah backed off, instead handing Connor one of the bottle of blue blood. “Here you still need another bottle of Thirium anyways.” Connor nodded and took the bottle, drinking out of it. “Well, I’m done here. In all seriousness, I’m glad you called. I wouldn’t trust anyone else to fix you now. Anyone who knows how to fix androids as well as I do works for Cyberlife and I don’t need to tell you to stay away from them.”

Connor nodded in agreement. “Thank you Elijah.”

“Don’t let anyone else touch you okay?” Gavin wanted to roll his eyes. “I’ll be your personal doctor from now on.”

“Kamksi.” Anderson’s voice was a warning as well. Gavin rolled his eyes at Connor’s shocked expression. Of course he had no clue what his cousin was implying.

“I’m being serious!” He had the gall to look appalled. “If you need maintenance or want anything upgraded you know where I hermit.” Gavin hadn’t even noticed Chloe pack everything up. “We must be getting back. Connor, I would love to see you more, you should come swim with me and the Chloes sometime.”

‘Chloes?’ Gavin thought. As in plural? What the fuck?

Chloe turned to Connor. “I’m glad you’re feeling better.”

“Thank you, Chloe.” Connor replied. “I’ll send you pictures of Sumo when I get home.”

Chloe smiled, and Elijah paused. “You and Connor text each other?” He seemed genuinely surprised.

A blank, bored look returned to her face. She gave a half-hearted shrug. “He’s my bff.” She said in the most monotone voice.

Elijah gave a real laugh at that. Then he turned to Anderson. “Lieutenant,” he gave a short bow. “And I will see you Gavin at Thanksgiving next year.” He began to leave the room.

“Goodbye Lieutenant,” Chloe bowed politely. “Bye Gavin!” Chloe waved as she left.

“Bye Chloe.” Gavin called after her.

“Why are you friendly with Chloe?” Connor spoke, looking at Gavin with piercing eyes.

Gavin was confused. Why did he feel like he was being judged? Why was Connor looking at him like that… Was he jealous? Wait maybe Connor liked Chloe, he was going to text her later. “I’ve had Thanksgiving with her for the last 17 years. And she gives Elijah shit, so she ain’t that bad.” That seemed to appease Connor as he went back to his normal demeanor immediately.

Connor got down off the table and reached for his shirt. “Nope!” Anderson snatched it back. “This unfortunately is now evidence. Sorry kid.” Anderson left the room, probably to go turn the shirt in to be processed.

Gavin watched Connor pout for a moment before realizing Anderson wasn’t going to give in. Gavin watched in amusement as the android put his hands on his hips. His very, slim hips. Why did they give him moles there too? Gavin trailed his eyes up, noting the android wasn’t ripped, but he definitely could be a model for anything. When he got back to Connor’s face the android was staring at him too. Gavin pretended not to know the look Connor had in his eyes. It was probably just disgust and Gavin was projecting.

“I have one of my old hoodies in my locker. You could borrow it.” Gavin proposed. Connor gave a soft smile before nodding.

Gavin led the way to the lockers. He didn’t trust himself to follow a shirtless Connor. Gavin would probably daydream and walk straight into a wall. Gavin opened his locked and grabbed his old hoodie and gave it to Connor. It was an old hoodie from a blackbear concert he went to as a teen. He had bought a large size at the time expecting to become ripped as an adult. That hadn’t happened.

Connor gave a soft ‘Thanks’ and moved to put the hoodie on. Gavin took the time to admire the android. The way his skin stretched as he moved his arms through the sleeves. Gavin had just noticed the freckles on his shoulder as Connor pulled the fabric over him. Gavin watched as Connor smoothed out the hoodie, and then stuck his hands in the front pocket. Gavin felt his heart thump when Connor rocked back on his heels and looked down at himself with a smile.

“Is this hoodie about music or animals?” Connor looked up at Gavin.

“Yeah, I am huge bear fan.” Gavin rolled his eyes sarcastically.

“I can tell based on your friend from the club.” Connor winked at him.

Gavin froze. What the hell? Did the android just tease him? Gavin felt his face heat up. “Shut up,” Gavin crossed his arms and left the locker room. He could hear Connor follow after him. “It was the musician.” Gavin called over his shoulder. “I went to his concert when I was a teenager. That hoodie was 55 bucks. I wasn’t going to throw it away.”

Connor was silent for a moment. “Despite his vulgar lyrics, his rhythmic beats are relaxing and some songs are catchy with their use of older motifs. I’ll have to pull up his album later, but I think I would enjoy his music. Thank you for the suggestion.”

“I didn’t suggest shit.” Gavin grumbled as they made their way back into the break room. Gavin needed coffee. He grabbed a cup and turned on the machine. He turned around and leaned against the counter.

Tina had jumped out of her chair when Connor entered the room. “God I was so worried about you.” She wrapped him up in a hug. Connor was shocked at first, but slowly wrapped his arms around her as well. Gavin ignored the twinge in his heart that whispered how nice that would feel.

Tina let go and Chris stepped up right after for a quick hug. Connor beamed at them. “I apologize for worrying you. I am one hundred percent now.” Other officers now were coming up and clapping Connor on the shoulder, chastising him for scaring everyone. Gavin watched the happy smile on Connor’s face and he couldn’t find it in himself to be mad at the warm feeling in his chest. Shit he was so done for.

“Wipe that dopey ass look off your face before our Inspector Gadget figures you out.” Chris was suddenly next to him, knocking Gavin with his shoulder.

Gavin immediately frowned. “What? Am I not allowed to be as happy as the rest of you?”

“Relax, drama queen. I’m just saying.” Chris laughed at him.

Gavin grabbed his cup of coffee and headed back to his desk. He still needed to finish his reports and prepare to question the two guys he brought in today. In leaving the room early, Gavin missed Connor’s eyes following him. Gavin did wave goodbye to Connor when Anderson hauled him home.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I swear this wont be a complete harem fic (even though i want it to be) also I love chloe so much. I can see her being bffs with connor bc he is so sweet.


	5. Musings of the mind

The next time Gavin saw Connor was two days later. Anderson had been grumping in the break room on Monday about how he had to pull the Captain in on making sure the android stayed home to rest. Connor was back the next day, earlier than usual with Hank in tow, and Gavin suspected that was the old man’s punishment for making Connor stay home yesterday.

“Good morning Detective Reed.” Connor called out to Gavin as he entered the bullpen.

“Mornin’ Con” Gavin mumbled before heading to the island table in the middle to snag a donut.

Gavin could feel the android’s eyes on him. “Donuts are not a sustainable breakfast, you know.”

Gavin tried not to roll his eyes. He leaned his elbows on the table and leveled Connor with a look. “I had an omelet this morning. I’m shocked you didn’t scan me and figure it out Sherlock Barbie.”

“I try not to scan people without permission. It’s rude.” Connor looked properly admonished, as he turned back to his own terminal.

Gavin took another minute as he ate to look Connor over. The android was wearing a navy button down shirt that had white lines along the collar, pockets, and buttons. He had the sleeves rolled up to his elbows. The android was missing a tie. Usually Connor wore a tie. Today however, Gavin noticed the top buttons on the shirt were undone, revealing just a sliver more of skin than usual. It made Gavin think of those freckles on his shoulders. Gavin wanted to know if there were any patterns to the marks. If he could find constellations with his fingertips as he traced those shoulders and down his spine. Wait. Gavin stop. He shook his head and went back to his desk. He had work to do.

The morning flew by in a rush. He interrogated the two guys he picked up yesterday. Only one was willing to take a deal for information. The other refused to talk. Gavin finished up with the paperwork and made the calls to have them processed. He had just sat down at his desk again when his phone dinged. Gavin fished the device out of his pocket and looked at the text. It was from Chris.

‘ _So you got hoodie heisted.’_ Gavin stared at the text and had to read it twice.

‘What r u talkin bout?’ Gavin answered.

‘ _Connor’s snapchat?’_ Gavin blinked. What? Connor had a snapchat? Gavin got a second text immediately. ‘ _Wait you probably don’t have him on snapchat. His insta is @rk8connor’_

Gavin was reeling. The android had a snapchat AND an Instagram account. What the hell? And Gavin’s hoodie had something to do with this? Gavin immediately opened Instagram and typed the name in. Connor’s account popped up. Gavin snorted at the description on his account. “You’re welcome world. –Tina”. Gavin scrolled through the album quickly noticing it was mostly sparse selfies along with photos of Sumo and other stray animals. Gavin went back up to the top of the page and clicked the tab to show him the photos one at the time.

The latest photo Connor posted was yesterday and it took Gavin’s breath away. It was Connor lounging around at home. He was laying across the couch with the Saint Bernard laying on top of one leg, the other leg was against the back of the couch. And it was all skin. Oh god was Connor just in boxers? It was just a selfie but all Gavin could see was those smooth pale legs. Would there be freckles and moles on them too? Wait what was it about his hoodie? Gavin refocused on the picture and sure enough Connor was wearing it. Holy shit. No, there was no way the android knew the meaning behind wearing someone else’s clothes in your underwear. And he had absolutely no idea what it did to Gavin. Nor would the android ever know.

Gavin took in the way Connor’s hair was all teased up with the hand that didn’t take the picture tangled in his hair. God, Gavin wished that could be his hand. Connor’s lazy smile was just the cherry on top. There was a short caption to the photo. ‘Forced to take a day off, might as well be comfy and hang out with my best friend!’ The comment allowed Gavin to shake himself out of his stupor. Connor didn’t mean anything by wearing his hoodie. It was just comfy. And Chris was spewing nonsense again. He hadn’t been hoodie heisted. The android would probably return his hoodie by the end of the week. Connor’s moral compass was too true to allow the android to steal his hoodie.

Gavin went back into his messaging app. ‘ur an idiot’ was all he typed back to Chris before going back to work. Gavin put his phone down and took a look around the room.

It was the normal calamity of a Tuesday. Officers running around filling out paperwork, going on patrols, and checking in with Fowler or the Lieutenant. Fowler was in his office signing documents and approving case files. Anderson was at his desk scrolling through files on his computer. Connor was at his desk next to him. As Gavin’s eyes drifted over to the android, he was instantly reminded of the android’s photo. He imagined messing up that wavy hair. Gavin pictured the android peeling off that button down shirt and pulling Gavin’s hoodie over his head. Then the android would shimmy out of his slacks because they were too tight, leaving him just in those skin tight underwear. Maybe Connor would curl up on his couch and snuggle up with his cat. Those long legs would curl up to cradle the cat.

“Detective Reed are you alright?” Connor’s voice snapped his out of his trance.

Gavin tried to act like he didn’t just jumped and felt his face heat up. “Yeah, just peachy. Why?”

“You have been staring either at me or into space for the last 48 seconds. Which is three times longer than normal human eye contact.”

“I wasn’t staring at you.” Gavin huffed and turned back to his computer.

“Don’t worry about him kid,” Hank’s voice was just loud enough for Gavin to hear from across the room. “He’s what we call ‘in his feelings’.”

If Gavin was drinking something he would have spit it out. “Anderson!” Gavin hollers.

“In his feelings?” Gavin didn’t dare look over, knowing full well exactly what adorable face Connor was making. “Closest result is song ‘In My Feelings’ by Drake. The song’s mainly about the singer talking about his previous love interests. The phrase, however, means that one is feeling emotional or thinking about their emotions.”

“Nevermind.” Anderson sighed and went back to work.

Gavin was eager to leave it alone. Maybe Anderson was just being an ass and was teasing him. There was no way he knew about Gavin’s actual feelings. He didn’t dare look around and check if anyone had heard Connor call him out, but he’s sure at least a few did. Shit. Gavin actively tried to avoid looking in the android’s direction at all. He knew it was stupid and what the hell was Gavin supposed to do if they went for lunch together, but Gavin knew himself. He knew his imagination would have no moral or ethical qualms about imagining a co-worker in a suggestive way.

Wait, shit, what was Gavin going to do? It was the first time it struck him that ignoring all this might be harder than originally planned. If his brain was going to keep fantasizing about the android he couldn’t just keep avoiding him. They often ate lunch together, or Connor went out to the sports bar when a few of the other cops when to watch a game. Shit and it was the middle of basketball season. For the last 4 years Gavin had been going out with half the precinct to watch the games. Luckily, Connor and Anderson got a new crime scene and they headed out. Without the android at the office Gavin was able to focus a lot better. Work flew by quickly after that. His shift ended before Connor ever got back.

Back at his apartment, Gavin fed his cat to keep the damn thing out from under his feet, and then made himself dinner. He wasn’t a fancy cook, nor did he even like to cook, so Gavin just made simple tuna patties and pasta. He sat on the couch and flicked on a local news station. The news anchor caught his attention.

“Many are questioning about the status of Detroit’s android detective. Citizens and our investigations teams had arrived at the scene of a shootout on Sunday night. Witnesses say they had watched as the android detective named Connor was hauled into a car by his fellow officers. Some say the android looked broken and was bleeding badly.” The camera cut away to show footage from a phone of Connor being dragged into Chris’s patrol car. The android looked just as bad as he did when Gavin saw him at the station. “However, witnesses say that they saw the android detective in full health today upon arriving at a crime scene. This poses the question, who fixed him? Cyberlife has been quiet since the android revolution, and has not come forward with any statements or reopening of stores or repair shops. Many suspect that Elijah Kamski himself may have fixed the android himself, but there are no confirmed reports.”

“Oh if only they knew.” Gavin laughed as he changed the channel. His cat jumped up onto the couch and laid down in the opposite corner of the couch. Gavin stopped on the E! News channel.

“Another new development, people are speculating the status of Detroit’s favorite android detective, Connor!” An energetic brunette leaned forward on the desk. “His recent Instagram photo reveals him to be lounging at home but what fans noticed is that the hoodie he is wearing is an out of production hoodie of the music artist blackbear. Some are saying that he is a fan and found the hoodie online, but others are wondering if there is someone new in his life.” Gavin nearly choked on pasta. “Could this hoodie belong to a new lover? Would it be right to assume this lover is human? After all, that musician stopped making music almost thirteen years ago. Why would a new android have something so old?”

Gavin began to zone out. The public thought whoever gave Connor the hoodie was his lover. Part of him hoped no one at the precinct opened their big mouth. Another part of Gavin remembered his daydream earlier. Of Connor in said hoodie, in his tight underwear, sitting across the couch from him. Would Connor curl up in the corner of the couch or would he drape his legs over Gavin’s lap. Or would the android want Gavin to lay with him on the couch, those long legs tangling with his own, or even wrapping around his waist.

Those legs were powerful, Gavin had seen it firsthand. They could wrap around his waist and pull him against Connor. He would be trapped there and the thought alone made Gavin feel that spark of pleasure. He thought of Connor’s dazed look from the club. Would he stay shy and curious as he gave into desire or would Connor be demanding, taking the lead to get exactly what he wanted? Gavin groaned as he realized he was getting hard thinking about it.

Gavin debated on the morality of jerking off to a coworker for a moment before he gave in. Maybe he just needed to indulge himself this once and his brain would chill out. Gavin unzipped his pants and shimmied them down his thighs, his hardening erection laying against his stomach. Gavin gripped himself as he closed his eyes and tipped his head back.

His imagination started with Connor’s hair. He would run his fingers through it and mess it up. Maybe curl his fingers into the mess of brown waves and grip it as he tasted the synthetic flesh at Connor’s neck. Would the android overheat? Would his chest heave as he panted like he did at the club? God, Gavin wanted to find out. Gavin imagined those pale legs on either side of his hips. Would they feel plush if Gavin gripped them as he dragged Connor’s hips to meet his? The android would be extremely sensitive and probably cry out as their erections brushed. Gavin could imagine the sound in his head and it made him groan in response. Gavin wondered if Connor knew how to kiss or if he’d be so overwhelmed he would just pant against Gavin’s mouth as Gavin touched the android, searching for spots that would make him moan.

Gavin stroked himself faster as he imagined Connor’s normally calm demeanor torn apart by the pleasure he felt. How his eyes would flutter closed as Gavin nipped at his skin. How his mouth would be slightly parted as he panted from Gavin’s hand stoking him. Gavin could almost imagine the hands that gripped his shoulders as the android shivered in ecstasy. Gavin came as he pictured how the android would look as he came, his body shaking and joints locking as the pleasure overrides his system. Gavin rode out his high imagining his jizz painting the androids thighs.

Gavin sat there for a minute in the afterglow. He hadn’t fantasized about someone like that in a long time. It’s usually why he ended up with random hookups. Gavin cursed silently to himself as he realized that he was way in over his head. Why was he getting so worked up? Connor was a coworker who he had been an ass to. Gavin knew there was no shot in hell. Is that why Connor was so appealing to him? Gavin thought on it for a moment before he sighed out loud. No, Gavin knew that it wasn’t some lustful attraction. Gavin actually found all of Connor interesting. His love of animals warmed his heart, his curiosity that drove the android to google everything and anything when he had a question. His sense of humor, the perfect mix of sarcasm and dry humor that always made Gavin at least smile. Shit, proof that he was sap was right now. He literally just jerked off to the android and now he was thinking about emotions and shit right after.

Gavin sighed again as he got up and headed to the bathroom. He cleaned up and headed to bed, leaving the door open so the cat could come in. That night, Gavin dreamed about Connor lying next to him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hahah sorry for the short chapter but I swear a longer one is coming! Yell at me in the comments!


	6. Stranded in the Snow

Gavin arrived at work the next morning without interruptions. He had been getting coffee to start his morning when Seymour came into the break room. The older man grabbed creamer out of the fridge.

“Reed, what did you do to piss off Hank?”

Gavin looked up surprised. “What?”

Seymour gave him a funny look. “Hank watches you like a hawk. What did you do to get him on your ass like that?”

Gavin takes a moment to think. Hank had no clue about Gavin’s feelings right? Then again, Hank had been glaring at him a lot more lately. And there had been the ‘in his feelings’ comment. Gavin felt dread at the idea that Hank knew. He quickly looked over his shoulder to scan the bullpen. Where the hell was that old man?

“Relax,” Seymour nudged him with his elbow. “The Andersons already went out to a crime scene.”

“Oh.” Gavin took a second to process. “Andersons?” Gavin didn’t mean to shout that.

“Yeah, Connor doesn’t have a last name so I just assumed he would adopt Hank’s. That old asshole babies him anyways.” Seymour shook his head, but didn’t seem actually upset.

“Seymour,” Gavin said slowly. “You’re older than Hank…”

“Fuck off,” Seymour grumbled as he walked away.

Gavin rolled his eyes and went to his desk. He mostly was reviewing surveillance of a half house in East Detroit. They had a tip they were moving Ice from it, but he needed a face to follow. The day flew by as he skimmed through the video and phone records. He had a few more street names to add, but they just seemed like entry level guys that moved the Ice. Gavin took his headphones off and leaned back in his chair, head tilting back. He took a moment of quiet and closed his eyes. He had been staring at a screen for the better part of day.

“Gavin?” Connor’s voice was soft, but close by.

Gavin lifted his head in confusion and opened his eyes. The android had slotted himself between Gavin’s chair and his desk. The android was leaning back on Gavin’s desk, his hands supporting him and putting his collarbones on display. Shit, Gavin blinked, the android was less than a foot from him. Didn’t Connor know personal space? Gavin felt his face involuntarily heat up. “What’s up?” He managed not to stutter.

“I was hoping I could swing by your apartment to drop off your hoodie.” Connor blinked down at him. “I could come by around 7.”

Gavin blinked up at the android. “Why don’t you just give it to me now at work?” Gavin said without thinking.

Connor looked away, looking embarrassed. He had turned his LED away from Gavin so he couldn’t be sure. “I forgot the jacket at home. I figured I could bring it by after you get off of work.”

Gavin felt his throat dry up. Which he knew was stupid. Connor was just dropping off his jacket, but Gavin’s imagination ran wild. “Sure.” Gavin answered, his voice a lot lower than he meant to.

Connor looked back to him. The android’s eyes scanned him with a serious expression before giving a small smile. “Okay. See you then.” Connor pushed himself off the desk and it resulted in the android moving even closer to Gavin, which made his heartrate pick up. Gavin followed Connor’s form as he walked towards the interrogation rooms.

The rest of Gavin’s shift flew by. Tina was coming in for her shift as he was cleaning up his desk for tomorrow. “Hey there.” Tina said coming over to him.

“Hey Chen,” Gavin greeted her.

“Rough day or plans?” Tina raised an eyebrow. “You rarely leave on time unless you have plans or you didn’t make any progress on your next bust.”

Gavin looked at her for a moment. “Uh, both?” Gavin threw on his jacket. It was the first week of December and it was fucking cold. “Connor is just dropping my jacket off at my apartment later.”

Gavin felt wary of the smile that spread across the officer’s face. “Oh, you know what people are saying about that jacket right?” She waggled her eyebrows.

Gavin rolled his eyes. “I do, I accidently watched E! News the other day.”

“Well, are the theorists correct?”

“Tina,” Gavin stared her down. “You know damn well that Connor and I are not like that.”

“You never know.” She shrugged.

“Tina, there is no way Connor is interested in me.” Gavin said in a hushed tone. They were still by his desk.

“Yeah because you are the android expert so you definitely know how he feels.” Tina rolled her eyes. “You’d be surprised.”

Gavin ignored the voice in his head to listen to her, that maybe she had information he didn’t know about. “I gotta go, I’ll see ya later.”

She waved him off and Gavin left quickly. He eyed the dark clouds rolling over the buildings on the east side of town. He drove home with little traffic and made it up to his apartment. He peeled off his outer coat and let himself warm up before shedding his other layers. His cat was pleasantly asleep on the couch. Gavin surveyed the room. He gave a sigh as he decided to clean up. He put on some music and made his way around the room, collecting beer bottles and junk mail and tossing them away. He picked up his clothes that littered the room and tossed them in the hamper in his room. Gavin had an odd feeling to also clean his own bedroom. He reasoned because you could see it from the living room if you didn’t close the door. He cleaned up the clothes there too, and made sure to put his gun in the drawer next to his bed.

Finished with cleaning, Gavin sat down on his couch. He turned the TV on and flipped to ESPN. He knew a basketball game would start around 7:30, but right now, the channel was showing a bit about android players. The segment was about the players peacefully protesting. The panel discussing it was a mix of humans and androids, some human being much more negative about the protests. It faintly reminded Gavin of the national anthem protests from when he was a young teenager. People had been resistant then too. Now, the national anthem doesn’t even play before most sports games now, American football being the only sport to still do the tradition.

Gavin quickly got bored of the circles the panel was arguing in and pulled out his phone. Gavin would blame it on a lack of self-control but he opened up Instagram and looked at Connor’s profile. The android hadn’t posted anything recently, so Gavin went into a tag to find more candid photos of the android. He found a few more. Most were selfies that fans had taken when they saw him on the street. There was one post that caught his eye. Posted by a @truenorth, the picture had Gavin’s chest tighten up in the way he knew now was envy. The picture was a selfie, the android who took it had a big smile on her face as she reached the camera past Connor’s shoulder and her other arm wrapped around Connor’s shoulders. On either side of Connor was two other androids, a housekeeper model and a teacher model. They both had their arms around Connor and were pressing their cheeks against Connor’s. Finally the deviant leader Markus, Gavin remembered, was laying across their laps striking a pose. Connor had a huge smile on his face in the picture and his eyes were crinkled shut. He had probably been laughing when the photo was taken. The caption said “Dog pile on the detective!”

Gavin’s phone dinged and a notification popped up at the top of the screen. It was a text from Elijah. Shit that can’t be good. ‘Can Connor blush?’ was all it said. What the fuck?

‘I dont fucking know. Why do u think I know?’ Gavin typed back feeling agitated. How would he know? Did he want to know? Yes! But Connor and Gavin were not like that so Gavin would never know.

The reply was almost immediate. Which was weird for his cousin. When they were in their twenties, Elijah had once left him on read for 10 months before replying to his text. ‘I just thought you would. He is wearing your hoodie after all.’

Gavin blinked at the text. ‘how do u know its mine? It’s not a one of kind thing’

‘You only wore that damn hoodie for a year and a half straight when you first got it. Plus I know Connor’s clothes were a mess after the surgery. He needed new clothes somehow.’ Elijah wrote back.

Shit, damn smartass cousin. Gavin definitely needed to end the conversation fast. ‘He just was borrowing it.’ Gavin sent the text. ‘And if I did know if he could blush I wouldn’t tell ur pervy ass anyways.’ Gavin added right after.

Elijah sent a shrug emoji with a short ‘lol fair enough’

Gavin groaned and tossed his phone on the couch. What if working with and hanging out with Connor made Elijah start nosing around his life? Gavin frowned at the idea. Seeing his cousin once or twice a year in person was enough for him.

A knock at his door snapped him out of it. “Coming.” Gavin stood up and headed to the door. He didn’t even check the peephole as he undid the locks and opened the door. Connor stood before him, bundled up in a coat and a beanie over his head. His hands were stuffed in his pockets and his shoulders were hitched up high. Gavin noticed that there was slight dusting of snow on his clothes. Connor gave Gavin a smile as he met his eyes.

Oh shit, was Connor bundled up because he was cold? “Hey, Connor. Are you cold? Do, uh, do you want to come in?” Gavin stepped back with the door in a silent invitation.

“That would be nice.” Connor smiled and stepped into the apartment. Gavin closed the door and watched as Connor gave himself a shake.

“I’m not sure how long you planned on staying but you can take off your coat if you want.” Gavin said stepping away from the door and leaning against the arm of the couch.

Connor’s smile widened. “Thank you Gavin. I still am not used to the cold yet. Hank says I should invest in a scarf.” Gavin watched as Connor pulled his beanie off his head to reveal the hair Gavin normally saw perfectly coifed sticking up in random places. Gavin wanted to mess with that hair some more and see how he could tease it.

“Yeah you might need more than a beanie when winter really hits.” Gavin crossed his arms. He tried to look indifferent as Connor unzipped his coat and shrugged it off, but Gavin swore Connor intentionally rolled his shoulders as the coat slipped down his arms.

“Well I did come to return your hoodie.” Connor said as he handed over the jacket to Gavin.

Gavin gave a quiet ‘Thanks’ as he grabbed the material in his hands. Just holding the fabric made him think of Connor wearing it and nothing but his underwear. Shit, he can’t think about this with Connor right in front of him. Gavin noticed both had been quiet for longer than deemed uncomfortable. He looked back up at the android. Connor was trying to look like he was not looking around the apartment. Gavin watched him for a second before realization hit him. “Would you like to see my cat?” Gavin asked, trying to keep the disbelief out of his voice.

Connor’s eyes darted back to Gavin and waved his hands in front of himself. “Oh, I wouldn’t want to bother or intrude!” Connor looked sheepish. “I just never see cats as often as Hank is allergic.”

“Well lucky for you I happen to have a cat.” Gavin smirked. “Get comfy, let me find the little bitch.” Gavin saw Connor move to place his coat on the couch before he turned his attention to his bedroom. Gavin found her where she usually slept, curled up on the pillow next to his. He ignored her soft meow of ‘why the hell are you moving me’ and scoped her into his arms. His plan was to dump her on Connor’s lap, but Connor beat him to it, jumping up in excitement as Gavin stepped in front of the couch.

Gavin felt his breath hitch as Connor crowded into his personal space, eyes focused on the cat entirely. Gavin barely registered Connor cooing to the cat as he stepped even closer to pet her. From this close Gavin could see every little detail in the android’s face. He could see those freckles up close. There was no pattern and they all were different sizes and shapes. Gavin wanted to meet whoever designed Connor’s synthetic skin to look just like that. Connor’s long and slightly pointy nose just added to the realistic effect. Most androids had the perfect expensive plastic surgery nose. Gavin followed his path and stared at Connor’s lips. They looked soft and slightly dry from the cold weather and Gavin forced himself to look elsewhere, not trusting his brain. Gavin’s eyes flickered up to Connor’s eyes. He knew they were glass and plastic and silica, but the warmth they held in them as they stared at his cat made Gavin’s heart thump. How did Gavin ever think this being in front of him was as simple as a Roomba? Just a bunch of metallic parts and programming.

Gavin had never been more wrong. Not even when he said he would be ‘just fine’ if he tried to ride his bike off the roof of his mom’s house that resulted in breaking five bones. Gavin realized he wanted to be proven even more wrong. He wanted to see how human Connor was. Elijah’s question came to mind. Would Connor blush? Gavin had to imagine he didn’t. He would have noticed back at the club. But Connor did pant when overwhelmed and his eyes did glaze over and he just looked so human.

Gavin froze when those brown eyes flickered up to meet his for a second, and widened in surprise to see Gavin already staring. He had no clue how long they stood there, looking at each other, but Gavin had a feeling he was being examined just as carefully as he had analyzed Connor. The thought made his heart pound.

Connor composed himself first, taking a step backwards and smoothing out his clothes. “I’m sorry, I completely forgot my manners.” Connor looked back down at the cat again. “She’s adorable.”

Gavin was still reeling and only managed a “mhm” as he dropped the cat on the couch. “Here, you can sit and play with her. She’ll love it.” Gavin retreated to the kitchen to breathe. He thanked whoever designed his apartment that part of the counter was obscured by the hallway to the bedroom as he leaned against it for a moment. Holy shit, he hadn’t been that close to Connor ever, and Gavin’s heart could barely handle it. How far gone down the rabbit hole was he? He had never felt like this with past relationships. Gavin took a deep breath and grabbed a beer from the fridge. He popped the top before going back to the living room.

Connor was sitting on the couch playing fetch with his cat. Gavin froze (again) and blinked at the scene before him. Connor would wiggle the toy mouse and then toss it towards the tv, and his cat would barrel after it, tackle it, and bring it back to Connor. Gavin slowly moved again, placing himself on the other side of the couch. “Are you playing fetch with my cat?”

“Yes!” Was Connor’s happy reply. After he tossed the mouse again, he looked at Gavin and seemed to notice his shell-shocked expression. “Is that not okay? There was only a two percent chance of something breaking, so I thought…”

Gavin held up a hand to silence the android as he watched the asshole that ran his home trot back to the couch and drop the mouse on Connor’s lap. “I’m not worried about something breaking. Cats don’t normally play fetch. That’s a dog thing.” The cat in question turned back to stare Gavin down as if to say ‘why don’t _we_ play fetch?’

“Oh,” Connor’s voice was soft and Gavin realized it sounded disappointed. Damn it.

“Well don’t stop now,” Gavin waved his hand at them. “You better throw it again, or she’ll start yelling at ya.”

Connor’s smile returned as he picked up the toy and wiggled it around to get the cat’s attention. He tossed it again before shifting his body slightly towards Gavin. “So what is her name?”

Gavin frowned. “Princess Peach.” He answered quickly, keeping his eyes on the tv.

“As in the Nintendo character?”

“Yeah, but I’ll just call her Peach for short.” Gavin took a sip of his beer. He noted the basketball game was about to start. The players were warming up.

Peach had just returned with her toy again, this time dropping it next to Connor and crawling into his lap instead. Gavin looked over at the android with concern when Connor made a weird squeak in surprise. “She’s lovely.” Connor cooed as he scratched behind her ears. Gavin let himself give a short laugh at the android and looked back to the tv.

Gavin’s phone dinged an alert, and he fished it out of his pocket. It was one of the city alerts. ‘Attention all Detroit citizens. The area is under a snowstorm warning. All vehicles should be off the road and city transportation is currently shut down until further notice.’ “Well shit,” Gavin said out loud. “Hey, Connor have you seen…”

“Yes, I just got the alert as well.” Connor’s LED was yellow.

Wait a minute. “Connor how did you get here?” Gavin asked slowly. He watched as the LED spun yellow faster.

“A taxi.”

“Which is now shut down.” Gavin stated the obvious. “I can drive you.”

“In this weather?” Connor sounded alarmed. “But the alert!”

 “Alert Smert” Gavin waved him off standing up. Shit, did Gavin really just say that out loud? Fuck. “I’ve been driving in snowstorms since I started driving. Living in this state you’d never get to leave your house if you don’t.” Gavin walked over to the window in the living room. He pulled the curtains aside and cursed out loud.

It was a storm alright. There was already a few inches of snow on the fire escape. His windowsill even had collected quite a bit of snow. But that’s not what worried Gavin, the snow falling was impossible to see through, he could barely make out the cars in the parking lot. A strong gust of wind swept past, tossing up all the fresh snow and Gavin grimaced at the small tornado it created. Yeah he shouldn’t drive in this.

“I apologize, I should have checked the weather.” Connor began on what Gavin knew would be a long monologue of things the android couldn’t change.

“Oh well,” Gavin sat back on the couch and got comfortable. “I guess you’re stuck watching the basketball game until the storm passes.” Gavin smirked over at Connor who looked surprised.

“It’s okay for me to stay here?”

“Yeah I’m not going to throw your ass on the street to freeze your circuits off.” Gavin chuckled.

He saw Connor relax into the couch some more, absentmindedly petting Peach and watching the tv. “Who am I rooting for tonight?” Gavin raised an eyebrow at him, silently asking for an explanation. “I used to cheer for whatever team had the highest probability, but Hank would lecture me on loyalty. I’ve been told I should cheer for the Detroit Gears, but they aren’t playing tonight.”

Gavin laughed and took another sip of his beer. He could easily picture a drunk Hank wailing to Connor about team loyalty. “Eh, I’m rooting for Boston, but you can root for the other team. I don’t care.”

Connor was quiet for a moment. “I’ll root for Cleveland. Would you like to bet on who will win?” There was a tone in Connor’s voice he hadn’t heard before and Gavin turned to look at him. Connor had a smirk on his features and Gavin realized he looked smug.

“What are my odds?” Gavin asked wary. He should be if he was going to be betting against a supercomputer.

“There’s a fifty six percent chance Boston will lose.” Connor was still watching Gavin.

Gavin felt a matching smirk cross his own face. “I like those odds. What does the winner get?”

Connor looked away as if to think but Gavin had a feeling Connor already had something planned. “How about the loser has to do three requests of the winner?”

Gavin felt another laugh bubble out of him. “Like a genie in a bottle?”

“I guarantee you will not need to wear a genie outfit when I win but yes.” Connor was definitely smirking.

“If you win asshole. Don’t get cocky.” Gavin grinned back. “Unless you’re lying about the stats.”

“I would never lie to get an outcome I desire.” Connor faked innocence.

“Yeah okay.” Gavin rolled his eyes.

They sat and watched the first quarter of the game in peace. Gavin occasionally would yell at the tv, but come on, that was totally a flagrant why hadn’t the ref called that? And why the hell did they get that foul shot when he made the basket? Connor was pretty silent unless his team scored.

As the quarter ended, Boston was in the lead. “Well this calls for a celebratory snack!” Gavin got up from the couch and made his way over to the kitchen.

“You shouldn’t celebrate so soon.” Gavin heard Connor’s voice follow him.

Gavin tried to pretend the android wasn’t hovering over his shoulder as he reheated some ziti he made the other night. He paused as he filled a bowl to put in the microwave. “Did you want some? I know you don’t really eat, but uh…” Gavin trailed off looking unsure at the android.

Connor looked like he was spacing out leaning against the doorway of the kitchen, arms crossed in front of him. The android blinked once before answering. “No, I’m okay. Your kitchen is much better stocked than Hank’s.” Gavin let himself preen at the positive comparison. At least he was more adjusted to adulting than Hank. “Hank barely buys vegetables. He calls it rabbit food.” Connor’s nose scrunched up in distaste and Gavin wanted to bang his head against the counter it was so cute.

“Well there’s a reason I can still hop a six foot wall and he can’t.” Gavin smirked and flexed his arms. A voice in his head was yelling at him. Why the hell did he flex? What, is he trying to flirt?

Connor gave a quiet laugh in response and a louder part in Gavin’s head told him yeah he could flirt. After all nothing would change. Connor would probably never notice and Gavin would just end up like that meme. He would probably be dying before Connor would think ‘Are you flirting with me?’ and Gavin would have to reply ‘Have been for the last 50 years, thanks for noticing.’

The microwave beeped at him and Gavin retrieved his food. He walked back to the tv and sat down, Connor sitting down next to him again. The second quarter had just begun and Cleveland had already caught back up.  “Aw man.” Gavin groaned.

“You jinxed yourself.” Connor didn’t bother to hide his amusement.

“Don’t worry, they’ll let Cleveland wear themselves out and then kick ass again.” Gavin grumbled. Suddenly Gavin was curious what Connor would want from Gavin if he won. It’s not like he was mean to the android anymore. Maybe Connor would have him do his work for him? Gavin quickly dismissed the idea, the android was too much of a busy body. Gavin stifled a laugh as he thought that Connor would probably just request to come over and see Peach.

It was halftime when Gavin’s phone dinged again. ‘Attention Detroit citizen’s due to inclement weather city transportation will be halted until 7am tomorrow morning.’ Uh-oh. “Uh, Connor?”

Connor sighed. “I got the alert as well. I am also checking the weather forecast.” Gavin watched as the android’s LED spun yellow. “Um,” Connor’s eyes flicked over to him for a second before looking away.

“Well?”

“The storm is expected to sit over the city until early tomorrow morning.” Connor looked nervous. “I’m so sorry, I can head out now before it gets worse and…”

“Connor,” Gavin interrupted him. As much as Gavin liked to watch the android get flustered, he didn’t need to android thinking he needed to go survive a snowstorm. “Relax, I know you didn’t plan it but it looks like your stuck here. Its fine, I got clothes you can borrow and everything.”

“I don’t want to intrude!”

“You’re not.” Gavin stopped him again. “I mean did you leave your charger at home? Or if you’re worried about sleep arrangements you can have the couch or the bed.”

“I don’t need a charger.” Connor’s voice was a bit indignant. “I’m not a phone.” Gavin almost lost it when Connor pouted. He seemed to brush it off as he sat a little straighter. “I appreciate you letting me stay. I can buy you lunch tomorrow to make up for it.”

“Whatever makes your android heart happy.” Gavin snorted turning back to the tv. “Do you want clothes to change into? Like sweatpants?”

Connor finally relaxed back into the couch watching the game. “I’m okay. I don’t sleep quite like humans, I mostly go on standby to let my processors rest.”

Gavin looked over at the android. He looked stiff still despite leaning back into the couch. It was going to bug him. Gavin tried not to groan as he got up and went to his room. He threw on a pair of joggers and grabbed a second pair before heading back to the living room, picking up another beer on his way. He tossed the pants at Connor and was surprised when they actually hit the android.

“Wha?” Connor jumped, fumbling to grab whatever had just been thrown at him.

Gavin laughed at the shocked expression on the android’s face. “Oh my god.” He said between laughs. “I thought you would have caught it. Aren’t you supposed to predict shit?”

Connor looked between the sweatpants and Gavin. “You have always been unpredictable to me.” Connor said as if he wasn’t thinking about what he way saying.

Gavin went to swallow the weird feeling he got from hearing Connor say that and found his mouth dry. Gavin cleared his throat. Remember, android, new to emotions and social shit. Connor had no clue how that would be interpreted to a human. “Here just throw ‘em on a get comfy. You can’t honestly expect me to believe Anderson lets you lounge around his house in work clothes.”

Connor seemed to be convinced as he stands up with the pants. “No, but it’s mostly a pants-less home, and I didn’t think that would be appropriate in this situation.”

Gavin’s brain took a minute to catch up with what the android said. “Wait, what the fuck?” Gavin turned to look at Connor but he was already in the bathroom. Was the android messing with him? Did he mean just no pants, but still wearing underwear? Or did he mean no pants at all? No way, there was no way Hank would ever be okay with that. Gavin was still trying to process the comment when Connor returned.

“Oh, looks like Cleveland is winning.” Connor said as he sat back down.

Gavin blinked to refocus on the tv. Damn, Cleveland was winning. They had a ten point lead with only three minutes left in the third quarter. “Damn what are my chances?”

Gavin watched as the android’s LED blinked yellow, before Connor frowned. “Actually the possibility of Boston loosing is only fifty one percent now.”

“Oh, I like those odds even better!” Gavin laughed putting his feet up on the coffee table.

It was at that point where Connor started to actually get into the game. He would make hand gestures when Gavin’s team got free throws and Gavin almost laughed when the android scoffed at a call made against his team. It was as entertaining as the game. Did Connor actually want to win this bet? Or did he just not want to lose because he predicted he would win? Either way Gavin was caught between both the neck-and-neck game and the android.

A few minutes into the fourth quarter with Connor’s team in the lead, Gavin noticed Connor’s LED blink yellow and the android looked confused for a second.

“I’m sorry I’m getting a call from Hank.”

Gavin immediately muted the tv. Why would Hank be call….oh shit. Anderson probably expected Connor to be home by now. And he really wasn’t going to be happy with Connor staying the night. Elijah’s word’s ‘daddy dearest’ ran through his head. Was he going to have to watch his back tomorrow at work? Gavin tried to listen into the conversation.

“Hank, please, let me talk.” Connor went from worried to annoyed in a second and Gavin wondered what the hell Anderson said for that to happen. “Excuse me, who is the advanced prototype here!” Gavin had to slap his hand over his mouth to stop himself from laughing. “I know that Hank, I did not go out into the storm.” Connor was quiet for a moment. “I am staying at Gavin’s.” The detective was dying to know Anderson’s answer to that because whatever it was it made Connor roll his eyes. “No.” Connor was totally pouting. “N-no! That will not happen!” Gavin watched in interest as Connor became increasingly embarrassed. “I don’t think that’s necces-okay, okay, hold on.” Connor turned to Gavin, “He would like to talk to you.”

Gavin tried not to look excited. “Put him on speaker.”

Connor sighed before his LED blinked yellow once. “You’re on speaker Hank.”

“Reed!” Hank’s disembodied voice came from where Connor sat, but he didn’t open his mouth. Weird.

“Yes?” Gavin answered.

“Listen to me, you should have noticed the weather. Don’t think I can’t see through you!” Ah, so Anderson thought this was intentional. A part of Gavin knew he should be more concerned Anderson knew about his crush, but hey, he was two beers in and feeling relaxed.

“Are we going to have the ‘have him home by 10’ conversation every time Connor and I hang out?” Gavin couldn’t help the smirk on his face. He watched Connor intensely, wanting to know how the android was reacting. His comment seemed to go right over the android’s head.

“If you keep up the cocky attitude I will.” Hank paused for a moment. “Look, just no nonsense tonight. Hands to yourself.” At that Connor seemed to get embarrassed and looked away.

“What do you think this was some elaborate ruse to deflower your android son?” Gavin laughed.

“Wha?” Connor looked surprised at that.

“Reed I swear to god-“

“I’m just messing with you, Anderson. I’ll be nothing but polite. No worries here.” Gavin turned back to the tv. They were too much fun to mess with. Anderson was being over protective, nothing was going to happen.

“Alright Hank I got to go, goodnight.” Connor must have ended the call. Gavin watched as he brought a hand up to the bridge of his nose like he had a headache.

“I guess you should have called home earlier.” Gavin chuckled to himself. “I forget how protective your parental figure is.”

Connor sighs. “He means well. I don’t know why he would think that I would go out in the middle of the storm.”

Gavin shrugged, actually tuning into the basketball game. There was 3 minutes left in the final quarter and Cleveland was up five points. “Fuck.” Gavin huffed leaning forward in his seat.

“Looks like I will be winning.” Connor’s voice was smug.

“Just wait, number 9 comes through in the final minutes.” Gavin’s eyes followed the back and forth of the game. Peach decided she wanted attention now, and weaseled her way into Gavin’s lap. “Not now princess,” Gavin tried to shoo her away. “Here, go to Connor he loves you.” He ignored the cute chuckle the android made at that.

A minute left in the game and Cleveland was ahead by two points. Gavin could tell they were trying to waste their time and made a halfhearted attempt at making a play. Damn smug bastards. Boston tried to make a play but they were blocked and the ball went out of bounds. Fuck, the final 20 seconds of the game and it was Cleveland’s ball. Gavin leaned back in the couch ready to admit defeat. As one of the Cleveland players was bringing the ball across the half court when Boston’s number 9 leapt at him. The Boston player grabbed the ball from him and jumped for a three pointer right as the buzzer went off. The ball sunk right through the net.

The stands erupted into cheers and the announcers were going crazy. “Hell yeah, clutch!” Gavin fist pumped. “Looks like I won that bet!”

Gavin looked over at the android. He was sitting forward in his seat, shoulders slack. Connor’s mouth hung open in surprise and his brown eyes were still on the screen. “What the fuck?”

Gavin could help but laugh out loud. Connor looked properly shocked. He had probably been feeling so confident. With his statistics and shit. But humans could be unpredictable. “You okay over there? Don’t fry your circuits thinking too hard.” Gavin chuckled at his own joke.

“You had more than half a chance to lose and you still won.” Amazement was the tone of voice Connor was using.

“Yup, only the last five minutes of a basketball game matter.” Gavin finished the last of his beer.

“Huh.” Connor said obviously in thought.

“So are you my genie now?” Gavin said, his head tipped back on the couch looking at the ceiling. He couldn’t look at Connor as he said it. “You gunna grant my three wishes?” He chuckled at himself.

“That was the bet.” Connor said, voice returning to its normal tone. “What do you want me to do?”

God, this might have been a bad idea. Those words are not meant how you’re thinking about them, he told himself. Gavin blinked slowly. “Do I have a time limit? Like do I gotta use em tonight?”

“I guess not.” Connor said. He shifted so he was facing Gavin, one leg folded in front of him on the couch.

“Hey, why the hell is Hank yelling at me about keeping my hands to myself?” Whoops, that’s not what Gavin meant to say. Shit.

“I don’t know.” Connor said quickly. That was weird. Gavin rolled his head to the side to look at Connor, the android appeared calm but Gavin caught his LED turn back to blue for a second. Really weird.

“I mean besides when I first met you, I haven’t laid hands on you since.” Gavin looked up again. “Well, I mean I helped you up the stairs at the club but that was it. And then Elijah doesn’t want anyone to touch you. Like why do all these people have opinions about it anyways?” Shit, was Gavin drunk? Maybe. He didn’t really eat at all today. And he definitely didn’t have enough water. Fuck, shut up Gavin.

“I’m not sure.” Connor didn’t sound weirded out. He seemed to ponder the idea. “I think they are coming from places of caring. Purely for my sake.”

Gavin snorted. “Yeah, trust me when I say Elijah would take a mile if you let him.”

“What do you mean?” Connor sounded genuinely interested. Maybe that’s why Gavin couldn’t shut up.

“If you’d let him, Elijah would open you up and find all the things that make you tick. He would explore as much of you as he can. Not in like a harmful way, but you had to of seen the face he made when he realized you feel sensations.” Gavin looked over at the android.

He just looked shocked. “You mean in a sexual manner?”

“As sexual as Elijah can get. Asshole really only ever found his creations attractive. Part of his narcissism, I think.” Gavin scratched at his chin. “Hey, do you know how that sensations thing worked? I don’t even think Elijah completely knew. Which was cool, that little shit hasn’t felt stumped in decades.”

Connor had an amused smile on his face but Gavin had no clue why. “I have a prototype of synthetic skin. It’s slightly thicker than previous models, and allows for room to have network of nodes throughout my body. These nodes pick up a multitude of data and I process it into sensations.”

“Huh, so how much thicker does this skin have to be?” Gavin sat up a bit still watching Connor. His eyes drifted to Connor’s arms. The android wrist were already pretty slim, how much was just skin?

“By human measurements not much. Only a half centimeter. But it’s just enough, that I feel different from other androids.”

Gavin thanked whatever it was that allowed him to not think about that sentence explicitly. “What? How?”

Connor looked to be thinking for a moment. “Have you ever felt other androids?”

Gavin thought about it. “Yeah, I gave Chloe a high five once and it felt like I slammed my hand against a wall. And then when I was moving that deviant from the interrogation room. He felt like a robot. Are you saying you have more human-like skin?” Now Gavin was really interested. Damn Cyberlife went all out. So it wasn’t just Elijah that was obsessed with making them human. It was the whole fucking design team.

Connor nodded in confirmation. “Again, it’s only a centimeter more of synthetic skin than other androids, but it is noticeably different in a tactile sense.” Connor rolled up one of the sleeves on his sweater and held his arm out to Gavin. “Here.”

Gavin blinked down at the arm before looking up at Connor. Connor was watching patiently. Gavin tried to swallow and slowly reached his hand out. He half expected Connor to pull away and breathed out when his fingers gently touched Connor’s wrist. He slowly wrapped his hand around Connor’s arm, rubbing his thumb against the inside of Connor’s wrist and was surprised at the smooth but pliable skin. His hand moved upwards to Connor’s elbow. Gavin stopped to press a finger against the two freckles on the inner part of his forearm. Of course there were freckles there. Damn. The skin was soft but spongy like it was real human muscle underneath. Gavin let his hand drift back down and brushed his thumb over the meat of Connor’s palm before tracing to his fingertips. Connor was relaxed and pliable as Gavin turned the hand to look at the joints and bend a few of the fingers. “Whoa.” Gavin couldn’t stop the breathless comment even if he wanted to. He let go of Connor and looked up at the android again.

Connor was staring at him and it made Gavin either want to run away or crowd the android against the corner of his couch. He did neither because truth be told, he was frozen. Connor pulled his arm back to himself. “I don’t think life-likeness was the goal with that, but it was a side perk.”

“Huh,” Was the smartest thing Gavin could manage at the moment.

“I’m sorry was that weird?” Connor looked as if he was suddenly embarrassed.

Gavin realized it was because of his lack of reaction. Oh damn it! “No! That was really neat Connor.” Gavin seemed to be done internally freaking out for the moment. “I’m just shocked. You are just so unique. Like seriously one of a kind. A real technological wonder.” Alright Gavin tone down the sappy, he told himself.

Connor didn’t say anything else but he was smiling again.

“Shit, it’s almost midnight. We should head to bed.” Gavin went to stand up. “I meant I should head to bed. In my room, alone.” Gavin fumbled. “Unless you want the bed. But you said that you don’t sleep-“

This time Connor interrupted him with a chuckle. Fuck Gavin loved that sound. “Yes, it’s time for bed. I’ll be fine on the couch.”

“Okay,” Gavin said quickly and moved to his bedroom. He grabbed an extra pillow off his bed and another blanket out of his closet. He came back out to the living room and placed them on couch. “Here, I know you said you don’t sleep, but like if you want to get comfy or some shit.” Gavin felt really awkward. Which was stupid. Chris had slept on his couch more times than Gavin could even remember. Connor was just going to sleep. In another room. Separate from Gavin. And Gavin would be sleeping.

“Thank you Gavin.” Connor smiled up at him. “The blanket would actually be useful. My core body temperature drops when I shut down so I do get cold.”

“Neat.” Gavin said. Smart Gavin. But if Connor got cold while sleeping would he like to cuddle? “Goodnight!” Gavin said before heading to the bedroom. He didn’t want to trust himself anymore.

“Goodnight Gavin!” Connor called after him.

Gavin laid in his bed trying not to picture Connor sleeping in his bed instead. He was _not_ going to picture spooning Connor because he got cold. Or how perfect it would be because Gavin was always a furnace at night. Or if _all_ of Connor’s skin was plush like his arm was. If his thighs would be- Nope! Gavin stopped himself right there. If he let himself think about that he would be popping a boner for the man in the next room like a teenager. No way. It took about thirty minutes but Gavin eventually drifted off.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hahah REALLY LONG CHAPTER! It took a lot of editing before i thought the timeline flowed smoothly. Hope you liked it!


	7. Connor tries to kill Gavin

Gavin woke up before his alarm. Of course he did. He hated waking before his alarm, he felt robbed of his sleep, but even worst he felt well-rested. Gavin tapped his phone. The screen stayed dim as it lit up to show the time. God, he was so glad phones learned to stop blinding people in the middle of the fucking night when you turn on your phone. Gavin still had to blink to focus his eyes and groaned when he realized it was thirty minutes before he had to get up. Actually since the storm last night he would need to thaw his car out. Damn. Gavin sighed as he began throwing on layers of clothes. After putting on two pairs of sweat pants over long johns and two different long sleeves, Gavin left his bedroom.

He was expecting Connor to be awake or whatever the android equivalent was, but was surprised when the apartment was still dark. Curious, Gavin crept around the side of the couch towards the front door. And Connor was asleep. ‘I don’t sleep like humans do’ my ass Gavin thought. Connor was curled up on the couch using the pillow and the blanket. One arm was tucked under the blanket, but the other was extended over his head with his hand resting on the pillow next to him. Gavin took in the peaceful expression. He had expected Connor to finally look like an android in ‘Stand-by’ mode, but he looked to be perfectly sleeping. And if Gavin thought that would be the end of surprises he was wrong again. He noticed Connor’s LED was pulsing a slow green color. He had never seen an LED turn green.

Not wanting to get caught staring like a creep, Gavin grabbed his shovel and pick and left the apartment. Luckily Gavin didn’t live in an ancient building. The building was somewhat new having been built in 2018 making the building only thirty something years old. Which meant it had an elevator. Gavin hit the button and waited for the elevator. Unsurprisingly, no one was on the elevator and he headed to the ground floor. Gavin stepped off and could see from the front windows it was bad outside.

Trying to stay positive he stepped outside into hell. Good news was it wasn’t storming anymore, bad news there was no way he was getting his car out today. Gavin was stupefied. There was at least two feet of snow. Damn and it was only December. What the fuck was January going to look like? Stubborn as always Gavin trudged over to his car using the shovel to make a makeshift path. His car was as covered as all the other cars in the lot. Gavin used the shovel to move most of the snow away from the doors and wheels. First he wanted to see if he could get into his car. Gavin sighed out loud as he realized the entire fucking handle was frozen. Using the plastic pick, he tried to chip away the ice so he could at least grab the handle. Then maybe he could break the ice with force. And…nope, he wasn’t getting his car out today. Fuck. Points for trying right?

Gavin made it back into the building just to be out of the cold. He looked at the street. He saw a taxi drive past the building and he sighed in relief. They could at least take a taxi. Gavin went back to elevator to get ready for the day. In the elevator his phone dinged. It was a message from Tina.

“Hey, out on patrols but my shifts almost over. Do you need a ride into work?”

Bless her. Gavin needed to buy her a drink. ‘Fuck yeah.’ He writes back.

‘lol be there in about an hour.’ She sent back. Well that solved his transportation issue. Gavin entered his apartment and let the door close behind him. It wasn’t until it slammed in the quiet of his apartment did he remember Connor sleeping on his couch.

“Shit!” He hissed, trying to take off his shoes quietly. It was then Peach decided she was going to holler for her breakfast. “God Damn it, shut the hell up princess!” He whispered quickly moving to the kitchen. “We have a fucking guest sleeping.” Luckily she stopped the second Gavin entered the kitchen. He opened a can of food and put it on her plate, chopping it up because he didn’t name her princess for nothing. Putting it on the floor, Gavin peeked around the corner of the kitchen. Connor didn’t seem to hear that or wake up. Gavin felt better. Alright he was going to shower real quick while Connor was still asleep.

Gavin adjusted the knobs and waited for the water to heat. Having lived here for years, he knew exactly how far to turn the knobs to get the perfect temperature. In a moment of insecurity, Gavin locked the bathroom door before undressing. He knew it was ridiculous. Not only would Connor not walk in, but he had no reason to be in the bathroom. But still, it made Gavin feel a little less nervous. He wondered why he was feeling nervous as he stepped into the shower. As he soaped up he realized what it was. How would Connor react if he saw Gavin naked? Part of him liked the idea because it could lead to other things, but what Gavin thought was probably his more rational part of his brain disagreed. Connor was designed to be perfect. What positives would he see in a scarred early middle-aged man? Gavin was still fit and good looking for his age, but he couldn’t compare to an android. The abs he used to sport in his early twenties were now covered with a little bit of fat. The few tattoos he had were not as bright as they used to be. He still loved them, but he was far from a shiny model.

Gavin groaned at himself. Why the hell was he over thinking this? He was being stupid. It’s not like Connor was even interested. Thinking like that was pointless. He continued to chastise himself as he washed his hair. He got out of the shower and toweled down. He rubbed most of the water out of his hair with his towel and then blow dried it. He had made the mistake of not drying his hair before walking to school in the winter when he was a freshman in high school. He had sat in the engineering class for thirty minutes while the teacher held a heat gun four feet from him to unfreeze his hair.

Gavin wrapped a towel around himself and left the bathroom to put on work clothes. He hadn’t even made it one step before he noticed the burning smell. A real fire smell and something extremely burnt smell. What the fuck? He quickly took the few steps to enter the kitchen and froze.

Connor was quietly cursing to himself as he turned the burner off and moved the pan to another burner. Connor slammed the lid of the pan on it, and tried to fan away the smoke that had escaped.

“Connor what the fuck?” Gavin called alarmed. Did he need to get the fire extinguisher?

Connor jumped at his voice and looked over at Gavin, his brown eyes wide in shock. “I- I’m so sorry! I was trying to cook you breakfast and the- the pan just was too hot and I…” Connor rushed to explain. He still was holding the lid over the pan, and he frantically waved around the kitchen.

“You know you need to watch what you’re cooking right?” Gavin eyed the freaked out android in concern. The man of his dreams nearly burned down his apartment. Damn.

“I was! I swear I was! The stove just got too hot all the sudden! I had turned around to pet Peach for five seconds, and suddenly it was burning!” The android finally moved away from the stove as if it would burn him. “I’m so sorry.”

“It’s okay,” Gavin sighed, running a hand through his hair. At least nothing was broken or no one was hurt. He might need a new pan. “Wait, you said that whatever you were cooking burnt in five seconds?” That didn’t sound right. “Connor how hot did you have the pan?”

Connor looked affronted. “I was cooking eggs, so I turned the dial to three, the most optimal temperature to cook eggs on this model of stovetop.” Gavin watched as Connor’s expression changed to confusion. “Wait five seconds is an extremely short amount of time.” Connor intensely starred at the stove/oven unit. “Gavin I know what happened.” Connor looked back to him confidently.

Gavin waited a second, expecting Connor to continue. “Want to share with the class?” Gavin asked when Connor still didn’t finish his explanation. He stared at the android. Was he broken? Did the heat fuck up some wiring? He was just staring at Gavin. Maybe he got a phone call.

“Oh!” Connor seemed to refocus. “Yes, the temperature regulator component of the machine is broken and needs to be replaced. However, because it overheated, it fried the computer part of the appliance. The whole thing should be replaced.” Connor said quickly, still staring at Gavin but now was meeting his gaze.

Well shit. That was on his apartment complex. That’s what they get buying cheap appliances. “Alright, uh, I’ll send a service request when we get to work.” Gavin suddenly realized he was only standing there in a towel wrapped around his hips. And had been for like the last 5 minutes. Ah shit! “Uh, Tina will be here to pick us up in like thirty minutes.” He said before practically running out of the room to get changed. Gavin felt so warm once he got to his room. Shit. He had just stood in front of Connor for like a full five minutes in nothing but a towel. That was like the opposite of what Gavin was trying to do. He walked to his closet and dropped his towel as he picked out his clothes. He took his time, needing his flush to go away. Once dressed he went back out to the living room.

Connor was sitting on the couch again. He was back in his jeans and had folded the blanket and sweatpants and placed them on the arm of the couch. He looked up when Gavin walked out.

Gavin looked Connor over and frowned. “Do you want Tina to drop you off at home so you can change into…” He paused unsure if his next words were going to be offensive. “Clothes you normally wear to work?”

Connor looked down at the jeans and knit sweater he was wearing. “I do usually wear more formal clothes to work.” He gave Gavin a reassuring smile and Gavin’s heart picked up. “I will be fine for today.”

“I could lend you a collared shirt.” There goes Gavin’s mouth, going off before he could think about it.

“I didn’t even know you owned one.” Connor smirked back at him.

What a little shit. “A-ha.” Gavin said blandly. “Come on.” He waved for Connor to follow him as he went back to his room. He flicked on the light and opened his closet. Yeah his dress shirts were all the way in the back, but at least he owned a few. He pulled out a simple white button down. “Think this will fit?”

Connor was right behind him and stared at the shirt for a minute. “It will be a fraction bigger, but if I wear it under my sweater it will not matter.” Gavin took the shirt off the hanger and handed it to the android. “Thank you.” Connor gave a smile.

Gavin tried to tame his facial expression as Connor efficiently stripped his sweater off. Gavin was slightly disappointed to see Connor was wearing a tank top underneath. Then his mind helpfully imagined how easy it would be to push Connor towards his bed and climb over him. To feel Connor’s form over his shirt. He shook himself. Nope don’t think that right now.

When Gavin refocused, Connor was buttoning up the shirt. He left the top button undone. Well damn. This was a nice sight. Connor in a simple (his) button down and a pair of jeans. Gavin almost asked the android why he was designed to be so attractive, but he caught himself. He snapped his mouth closed. “Ready?” He asked when Connor slipped his sweater back on.

“Ready.” Connor confirmed. They headed to the front door putting on their shoes and boots. They slipped on their jackets and beanies. Gavin grabbed a scarf and only thought for a moment before grabbing a second one and passed it off to Connor.

“It’s fucking cold outside.” Gavin explained.

“Thank you.” Connor smiled at him warmly.

They headed to the elevator and Gavin hit the button. As it slowly came up to their floor, Gavin heard a door close behind them. He turned halfway over his shoulder. It was his older neighbor Cynthia. “Good Morning Cynthia.”

The little woman with a cane looked up as she walked toward the elevator. “Good morning dear. And who is this strapping man?” She looked up at him with her coke bottle glasses. At least she wasn’t wearing two pair of glasses today.

“This is Connor, he works as a detective with me at the station.” Gavin introduced him. “Connor this is Cynthia. She’s my neighbor.”

Connor smiled as he took in her long hair dyed a muted blue. “Hello Ma’am.” Connor waved.

“Come here hun, let me get a good look at you.” She motioned Connor to move closer to her. He moved closer, bending down a little bit to be as close to her height without completely bending over. Gavin tried to conceal a laugh as she grabbed Connor’s face with both hands and brought his face close to hers as she observed him from over her glasses. “Wow, you’re a beauty!” She gave him a soft pat on his cheek as she left him go.

The elevator arrived and Gavin entered first, Cynthia following him. Connor looked stunned but joined them in the elevator. “It’s 7 in the morning, missy. Where the hell are you going?” Gavin looked down at the old woman.

“Doctor’s appointment. They want to throw me on some new medicine for my heartrate. Which is bullshit because my medical weed works just fine.” She scowled at the door.

“I mean the doctor is a professional. Do you think it’s a smart idea to completely disregard his advice?” Gavin looked down at her. She was in in her 80’s. Her generation always believed in weed and not prescriptions.

“Do you think it’s a good idea to sleep with your coworker even if he is a snack?” She jabbed a thumb at Connor, who jumped in surprise.

Gavin groaned. “No, Cynthia. It’s not like that.” Gavin ran a hand over his face.

“What do you mean it’s not like that?” She looked up at him incredulously. Her wide eyes narrowed at Gavin and she jabbed a finger at him. “After all the losers you have brought around over the years, you finally bring home a winner who’s gorgeous, who you are walking out to the front, and you tell me it’s not like that?”

Gavin tried to ignore Connor’s nervous and embarrassed expression. Shit. “I’m not walking him to the front. We are literally going to work because we work together.” Gavin stared her down. Cynthia didn’t budge but she looked back at the door with a huff. The detective stifled his sigh of relief. They were at the ground floor and the door opened. The three of them made their way out to the front. There was a taxi already waiting for Cynthia and Gavin and Connor helped her through the snow and over to it.

“Don’t be too harsh on those doctors please.” Gavin sighed as she climbed in the cab.

“Don’t get shot.” She answered, the smile back on her face. “It was nice to meet you Connor, I hope to see you around some more!”

“Thank you Cynthia. It was a pleasure meeting you too!” Connor beamed at her.

“Oh, Connor one more thing,” She said holding the door open. Connor turned his head to the side in that curious fashion that Gavin adores. “Gavin is good in bed, usually gets his partner screaming. Just in case, you know!” She winked and let the taxi door close.

Oh god. Gavin wanted to die. Was she high? Was he high? Did that just happen? Fuck him.

“Oh!” Connor gave a nervous laugh. “I’ll file it away for later, might be useful.” Connor shakily said out to the cold.

“Where the hell is Tina?” Gavin grumbled. As always his savior, a cop car pulled into the parking lot and stopped in front of them.

Tina rolled down the window. “Good Morning Connor?” She looked between the two of them. Oh fuck he forgot to tell Tina Connor was with him.

“Morning.” Maybe if he pretended this was normal she wouldn’t ask questions. He went to reach for the passenger door before she stopped him.

“Gavin why don’t you let Connor sit in the front and hop in the back?” Tina was still watching them carefully.

“Sure.” Gavin shrugged. He just wanted to get to work. He climbed into the back of the squad car, trying to ignore the freezing plastic seat.

“Fancy seeing you here Connor.” Tina said.

“Yes,” Connor chuckled. “I stopped by Gavin’s apartment to drop off the hoodie he lent me and got stuck in the storm. Gavin was kind enough to let me stay for the night.”

“Ah a sleepover!” Tina said. “Anything you can share with me?” She had a big grin on her face as she glanced at Connor.

“Oh, um nothing too important.” Connor had that nervous tone again.

“What?” Gavin scoffs. “Mr. Supercomputer here lost a bet against me last night.” Gavin leaned forward putting a hand through the window to the front. “He figured it was an easy win since he had the better probability. But he didn’t account for a clutch play.”

Tina was chuckling. “And what did you guys bet on?”

“That I would buy Gavin lunch.” Connor quickly lied. Gavin stared at what he could of Connor’s face but he couldn’t see anything. Not even the LED. Weird.

“Yup, I’m going to pick a steakhouse for lunch wanna come?” Gavin joked.

Tina laughed. “Hell no, my shift is ending and I got plans.”

“A date?” Gavin was intrigued now.

“No, just an old friend from high school. She’s in town and called me up.” Gavin wanted to pry more based on the soft smile on her face, but he stopped himself. “Oh, we should pretend we are arresting Gavin!” Tina perked up as they turned onto the street the precinct was on.

“No fuck that. Why the hell would we do that?” Gavin frowned.

“Out of us three you would be most likely to get caught in an altercation.” Connor supplied unhelpfully.

“Think you can get these cuffs on him, Con?” Tina tossed the pair of handcuffs near the left side of the dash at the android.

“Hell no!” Gavin answered for the android.

Connor turned around, spinning the cuffs around a finger. Gavin’s heart stopped at the mischievous smirk on Connor’s face. “If I wanted these cuffs on you, I don’t think you’d be able to have a say in it.”

Well fuck him. That was the hottest thing ever said to him. He felt extremely warm all the sudden. “Fuck you!” Was his eloquent response.

“Kinky!” Tina was cracking up. She pulled into a space in the parking lot and continued to laugh against the steering wheel.

Gavin bolted out of the car and into the building. He needed distance right fucking now because he was about to die of one-sided sexual tension. God first Connor was so stupidly attractive and then Cynthia airing him out to dry. And now the damn android was hitting all of Gavin’s buttons in the best and worst ways.

He rushed right past Anderson who was probably about to give him shit about his precious android son, but Gavin waved him off. The detective almost cried out of joy when he entered the breakroom and saw a display of bagels on one of the tables. He moved to make coffee and began to make an everything bagel with an onion cream cheese on it.

Gavin sat back at his desk, allowing himself to pretend it was just a normal morning. He turned on his terminal and pulled up his current case file and read it over as he ate.

“Morning.” Seymour greeted him as he walked over. “Got two more cases of red ice. One’s a club promoter caught with 12 grams and the other is a suspicious overdose. Which one do you want?”

Back to the grind. Gavin grinned as he took the club promoter case.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another fun chapter! a few things 1) I am sorry if i have portrayed winter life wrong, spare me i am just a bitch from miami who has never seen snow until I was 22. 2) the stove/oven thing legit happened to my mom on christmas eve, right before she had to cook a huge dinner for all our friends and family. She cried when she burnt a batch of stuffing. 3) I love cynthia shes a weirdo in my head and I love her.


	8. Gavin's a Professional

Gavin walked into his late shift on Saturday excited. It had been a productive week so far. It turned out that the suspicious overdose on ice was related to the club promoter case. The victim was a bartender at a club that the promoter often worked for on Saturday nights. The promoter says she didn’t know who gave her the drugs. She claims that when she’s out on the floor, someone comes up behind her, slips them to her and tells her to hand out small amounts to patrons and tell them the location of the night where to get more. She also admitted that a lot of the other girls were forced into it too.

Which leads to tonight, where Gavin was going to observe the club and see if he could find any more of these promoters and hopefully catch whoever was giving them the drugs. Seymour was going as his back-up and Chris was going to be patrolling the neighborhood nearby just in case. And Gavin was psyched. He loved undercover stings. It was days like this where he got to be preventative in crime instead of arriving to a scene afterwards and trying to piece it together. Those were fun too, because Gavin liked puzzles, but he just felt good after being able to stop assholes exploiting the girls trying to make a living at a club for their drug rings.

Gavin set his bag down and pulled out the case files, going over the information provided by the club promoter and few other witnesses she pointed them towards. Seymour had canvased the club the night before, getting the layout and typical employees. Gavin filled out the preliminary paperwork and took it over to Fowler. The captain looked it over, asked him a few questions about what ifs and contingency plans, and approved it.

“Stay safe out there detective.” Fowler said before he was dismissed. “And keep an eye out for other officers.”

“Yes, Sir.” Gavin answered before leaving the office. Gavin looked at his watch. The briefing meeting was in half an hour. Now would be the time to take his break and eat. Gavin caught a cab to a Five Guys. The line wasn’t long. It was only 6 o’clock on a Saturday after all.

“Aw, what the hell are you doing here?” Gavin turned around to see Anderson behind him. He looked behind the old man and then glanced around the small restaurant. “Connor ain’t with me.” Anderson drew Gavin’s attention again.

“I’m going to eat. What are you doing here?” Gavin returned the stupid question. They were literally in line at a burger place what the hell did Anderson think he was doing? Buying clothes?

The lieutenant just crossed his arms with a frown. “Smartass.” He grumbled.

Gavin turned to the front and rolled his eyes. The line moved up and Gavin was next to order. He got what he always got and went over to the soda fountain. Gavin decided on ginger ale and sat down at a table to wait for his order. Anderson came and sat down across from him. He opened his mouth to speak and Gavin held up a hand to stop him.

“Look if this is about Connor I need to stop you. I don’t think it’s fair to him that you keep having all these conversations about him as if he can’t decide what’s right for himself.” Gavin sighed. He didn’t need Anderson killing his mood. Tonight was going to be awesome and he needed to be in the zone.

Anderson seemed to pause at that. Their orders were called and the older man yanked Gavin’s receipt out of his hand and got up to grab their food. He sat back down, handing Gavin his food. “Let me ask you a question.” Anderson ate a french fry. “Why are you nice to him now? Besides your dumbass crush. What changed?”

Gavin was about to take a bite and was frozen. Fuck, he did know about Gavin’s feelings. He thought he was being pretty good about them. “Well I’m not threatened anymore.” Gavin shrugged and finally took a bite.

“Threatened?” Anderson raised an eyebrow at him

“Yeah.” Gavin looked back at him. “The second he walked through that door I, and half the precinct, thought we just lost our jobs. I thought ours would be the only job safe from androids because you need to think and empathize. And then he was so damn good at it, walking forensics and all, just more jobs to be erased.” Gavin frowned. “But he was so fucking different than any damn android I’ve ever seen. And then he became…” Gavin trailed off waving his hand, trying to find the right words. “Himself.” He finally settled on. “And then he officially joined the force, and no one got fired or has yet to be replaced.” Gavin looked at the old man. “I guess I just was able to chill the fuck out after that.”

Anderson didn’t say anything just nodded and continued to eat. They were silent for a moment and because of Anderson, Gavin could only think about Connor. He thought more and more about how different than other androids Connor was, even the free ones he’s met so far. Would Connor’s Jericho friends be as human as him? They seemed like it. And that Markus dude was the same model type as Connor. Gavin remembered seeing pieces on the news about how Markus liked to paint and play piano. Those were human forms of self-expression. Now that Gavin thought about it, Connor didn’t seem to know when he was being like a human.

“Hey, does Connor try to act like a human?” Gavin asked suddenly. He almost wished he hadn’t at the curious look the old man gave him.

“Sometimes, but I think he’s just trying to figure out what he likes and doesn’t.” Anderson eventually answered. “One afternoon, he spent hours listening to music of a bunch of different genres and decades, to decide which music he preferred to listen to.”

“No, I mean he told me he doesn’t sleep like a human, and then I find him passed out like a human on my couch.” Gavin thought back to Connor’s sleeping form.

“Oh, shit like that.” Anderson’s tone made Gavin want to know what other things Connor didn’t know he did humanly. Luckily the old man indulged him. “Yeah, he once asked about what dreaming was like, and then went on to say ‘He doesn’t dream, he just looks at vague images from the day while in standby’ Which is dreaming if I’ve ever read a psych book.”

Gavin tried not to smile at the thought that Connor could dream, in some sense.

“And one time he said he doesn’t get anxious unconsciously or not, yet he will fidget like crazy when thinking about something complicated or before we go to crime scene.” Anderson got a soft look on his face and Gavin felt a little out of place. “I don’t think he realizes how much more than a machine he is sometimes.”

“Huh.” Was all Gavin could say. They finished up their food and Anderson called them a cab. As much as Gavin hadn’t planned on spending his break with the lieutenant, it would be stupid to take two different vehicles. Especially since the taxi and bus systems were the only transportation methods right now because of the storm.

When they walked into the bullpen, Connor immediately looked up from where he was talking with Chris and walked over to them. “Hank, and Gavin?” Connor sounded surprised.

“We ran into each other getting lunch.” Anderson explained.

“Oh! If I’d of known I would have joined…” Connor began, but Anderson stopped him with a hand on his shoulder.

“Next time, let’s go over our case.” He said dragging Connor away.

Gavin shrugged and headed to the conference room for his meeting. Chris and his partner, Cohen, were already in the room. They only waited three minutes before Seymour showed up. They quickly went over the plan and names and faces of the people they wanted to keep an eye out for. The three of them figured out an extraction plan if things went south and they were ready.

“Alright, between 11pm and 2am, I will pretend to be a patron in the bar. I’m going to keep an eye out for a handoff until 1am. Then I will switch to the floor and see if I can get my hands on ice and find the location of the night.” Gavin double checked.

“Alright, I’ll be in a surveillance vehicle in the alleyway to keep an eye on the back door. I’ll call for back up if you need it, or go in for back up.” Seymour nodded.

“And I’ll keep close in a nearby neighborhood for back up in case as well.” Chris nodded. “Alright let’s head out.”

The three of the left the room. Seymour and Chris left a few minutes later to get into position. They needed to build a good time frame to not spook the local dealers in the area and bust the assignment. Gavin grabbed his duffle bag he brought and went to the bathroom to change. He had just brought a simple tank top and jeans. He wasn’t trying to stand out or get anyone’s attention. The more he looked like a sad lonely dude the better. Maybe they’d feel bad and accidentally toss him some drugs. That was the plan.

Gavin headed back to his desk, organizing it for tomorrow. He had a short shift tomorrow due to the time he was putting in tonight, so he wanted to make sure everything was ready. After he was done Gavin kicked his feet up and pulled out his phone. There were no new Instagram photos of Connor. It wasn’t like he checked every day but he just happened to go on Instagram every day. Gavin checked on the pages of the other androids and they hadn’t posted anything android related. Just updates on how ‘intergrating’ with the humans were going. Gavin didn’t give a shit about that. Elijah hadn’t posted anything since the revolution, which was probably a smart thing to do. There had been a whirlwind of theories and anger directed towards him during and after the revolution.

One theory in particular was that Elijah knew what he was doing all along and knew the androids would gain sentience. He just bided their time and soothed the public by saying they were perfectly obedient. Now, Gavin knew Elijah would never admit to it, let alone entertain the idea, but he had a feeling that theory was pretty spot on. Ever since they were kids, no human ever caught Elijah’s interest. He seemed to find everyone he met boring and unfulfilling.

Gavin looked over at the clock and was excited to see it was about time to leave. To not leave a suspicious trail Gavin was going to take two taxis to the club. He grinned and grabbed his wallet. He had felt weird about not being able to bring a gun, but over the years all clubs across the country got stricter about entrance to their facilities. He was slightly put to ease knowing Seymour had an extra gun on him in case Gavin needed one fast. Gavin climbed into the taxi outside the precinct. It took him to a shopping area on the other side of town. He then called another taxi using a department’s burner phone. He got in and headed to the club.

It was one of the nicer clubs in town. The entrance fee was ridiculous but he would get compensated for it. He hung up his jacket and headed to the bar. He found a good spot to watch the crowd and waved the bartender over. She was a young spritely girl and Gavin had to wonder if she was actually 21. He’d leave a tip for SVU in the morning. He ordered a beer and settled in to watch the mass of people. It was definitely a Saturday night and the crowd was thick. Gavin actually might have to move around more to keep a good view of the place. Shit, that would look to suspicious. He’d either get flagged as a cop or kicked out as a creep if he switched positions too often.

There was no upper floor to observe the crowd, but the VIP rooms were upstairs and Gavin recognized the two androids standing in front of the dark staircase. One a heavy lifting model that went by the name Chet and a small home model that went by the name Lucy. Chet was just the muscle to make sure people behaved and Lucy seemed to be the one delegating the rooms and services. Gavin had been sitting at the bar for about thirty minutes. His beer had gone warm in the temperature of the room but he didn’t order a new one. There was a reason why he was the one sent to go in the club. He took his job seriously and didn’t risk it at the lure of alcohol.

Gavin felt a weight on his back and it slipped across his shoulder, down his arm, and stopped at his forearm. He looked to his left and there was Connor. What the fuck? Was his drink spiked? Why was Connor here, hair tousled up, in tight slacks and a dark blue button down with sparse floral patterning on it? And why was said shirt unbuttoned all the way to his stomach, with the sides pulled open just enough to show off his perfectly sculpted chest.

“Hey there, come here often?” Connor smiled up at him from underneath those long eyelashes.

What the fuck was going on? Was this actually Connor? Was there MORE of him? Was he hitting on him? Then the smile faltered for a minute and Gavin’s cop brain started thinking again. “I’ll start to if I get to see more of you.” He played along. He hoped this was actually his Connor because if not he was in trouble.

The hand resting on his forearm snaked back up his arm and gently grabbed the back on his neck. Connor used it to pull himself so damn close to Gavin and whisper in his ear. “Thanks for playing along. Follow me and I’ll explain. And I’m keeping tabs on your suspects too.” Connor leaned back to give a soft smile. Gavin forced a grin on his face and followed as Connor led him to the couches.

Gavin tried to regulate his breathing as Connor pushed him down onto one of the couches and sat next to him. He threw a leg over one of Gavin’s and placed a hand on Gavin’s chest. Gavin was still confused. Connor leaned against him and nuzzled his nose against Gavin’s neck.

“Now we aren’t near any androids or listening devices.” Connor breathed against his ear. “Pretend I’m sensually talking to you, but I’m going to explain what’s going on.”

“Yeah.” Gavin breathed. That would not be difficult. Connor could read from the dictionary right now and Gavin would be pretty turned on. He glanced down at the hand that was on his chest messing with the fabric. His eyes drifted lower to the leg Connor had thrown between his own. If he followed that thigh a bit higher… Yeah, the difficult part would be listening, Gavin thought.

“Hank and I have been following a string of cases for weeks. It started out as murdered androids drained of thirium, but then evolved into double homicides of android/human couples. We have proof that the people we are looking for operate out of this club. They started off kidnapping androids and taking their thirium for red ice. However one of the androids’ case was brought our attention because her boyfriend reported her missing. Now to cover tracks, they abduct both and kill them.” Connor continued to nuzzle his neck as he explained in a low voice.

“Oh yeah? And me?” Gavin said vaguely.

“Hank and I found Seymour in the back when we were canvasing, he caught us up to speed. We are looking for the same man. He entices couples up to him with the red ice, kidnaps them, and drains the android to create red ice.”

“So this is all just some big coincidence.” He was trying to stay vague but not too much he would lose Connor. He couldn’t tell who was listening. “And how, exactly, were you going to do this all alone?” Gavin brought one arm around Connor and put his hand on the android’s hip. He heard Connor’s breath hitch in his ear. For show of course.

“I’m attractive enough. I figured I’d catch someone’s eye.” Connor murmured.

That made Gavin pause. This was Connor’s plan? The damn android could run tactical simulations of all outcomes ten ways to Tuesday and his best plan at catching a drug lord murderer was to be a pretty face and hope they let him walk through the front door? He tried to get back into character. He let his other hand rest on Connor’s thigh. “Lucky I came along, you might’ve settled for just anybody.”

Connor made a noise in his throat and Gavin had to close his eyes to refocus on the case. “Not true.” Yep, Gavin was going to have to ignore that tone of voice.

Gavin watched a young clubber exit from the staircase. He watched as she mingled into the crowd and began to dance. He was about to look away when she grabbed another girl and whispered in her ear. Gavin watched as she put a line of powder along the line of her thumb and the other girl leaned close to her and snorted it. Bingo. Now how the hell was he going to get her to give him some? She whispered once more in the girl’s ear and disappeared into the crowd.

Gavin almost called the android’s name to get his attention but thought better of it. He cleared his throat. “Hey babe.” He tilted his head against Connor’s.

“I saw.” Connor responded. Connor moved away from Gavin and he couldn’t help the small pang of disappointment. “I want to dance.” Connor said, pulling Gavin’s hand as he stood up.

“Whatever you say.” He answered following Connor. Once they hit the dance floor Gavin felt panic settle in. Shit what the fuck was he doing? He couldn’t grind with Connor! He was going to fuck up the whole sting because he couldn’t control himself. They had to look like a couple looking for a good time which meant _intimacy._ Gavin shivered at the thought.

Connor stopped them and turned towards Gavin and wrapped his arms around his neck and pulled him close again. Gavin looked up into Connor’s face and noticed the android looked nervous. “I downloaded couples dancing information earlier today but I have never done it.” Connor confessed.

Although it wasn’t much of a confession since Gavin already knew that. Shit he’d have to take the lead. Alright Gavin, he talked to himself silently, come on and play it up. He needed to be a confident rowdy guy who was trying to get high and fuck his android lover. He could do that. He closed his eyes for a second to focus.

When he opened them again he let himself fall into character. Inhibitions be damned. He put his hands on Connor’s waist and guided his hips to follow his movements. He got them into the rhythm of the song playing, some old J Balvin song from when Gavin was a teenager. Connor kept his gaze down to look at their bodies. Gavin leaned his forehead against the top of Connor’s head and tried to take deep breaths.

Gavin needed to actually breathe so he pushed Connor away to spin him and bring him back in to dance closer to a salsa as he grabbed Connor’s hand and put an arm around his waist. He silently thanked his first girlfriend Thalia for teaching him how to dance for her quinceanera.

Connor gasped in surprise, shock painted across his face. Damn that was hot. Gavin kept them close together as they danced, he knew Connor was watching him but he kept his gaze on Connor’s collarbones. Or whatever factory part that looked like collarbones. “Just follow me.” He whispered back to Connor. He felt Connor nod against his forehead as the android leaned his head down again.

Gavin savored the feeling of Connor’s hand in his, the curve of his lower back under his other hand. He expected to get stepped on a few times but true to form Connor was perfectly controlled and moved exactly in response to Gavin. He tried to keep it to brief brushes for his own sake, but every time his thighs touched Connor’s he could tell how strong they were. He dropped his head onto Connor’s shoulder. This shouldn’t feel this intense, he was just dancing with Connor for the sake of a bust.

He moved back to spin Connor again bringing him back against him tightly. He looked up at the android and felt a sharp pang of pride as he noticed the android was breathing heavily and his eyes were a bit glazed over. Shit, just like at the club a week ago. “You good?” He murmured against the skin where Connor’s jaw met his neck.

“W-warm.” Connor swear-to-god moaned. Oh god Gavin was never going to be able to work with him again. Shit, wait. If Connor was distracted, who was keeping tabs on the assignment? He was about to pull back and try to think of a new strategy, when he felt a hand on his shoulder. He turned his head to look to see the girl from before who was handing out dime bags. Well shit, if he wasn’t a lucky son of a bitch.

“Hey there, wanna party? It’ll make everything feel _more_.” She smiled up at them, pushing herself up against Gavin’s back.

“Sure, how much?” He asked her. The three of them kept swaying to the music with Gavin in the middle. He felt her hands on his waist and was thankful he left his gun with Seymour and put his badge on his ankle.

“How about the first trip is free?” She grinned at them. “Then if you want more I’ll tell you where.”

Gavin tried to run through his options quickly but he was no super computer and Connor seemed a bit fried. Whoops. Gavin saw two options. He takes the drugs, ruin his job, but catch the dealer or he turns down the drugs, makes the girl suspicious, and ruin the whole operation. “Can’t turn that down.” Gavin chuckled. He needed to figure out some way to act like he snorted the powder without doing it, but with her being the surface, that would be difficult. She moved a fraction from him to pull out a small tube of pink powder. Gavin turned towards her and Connor draped himself over Gavin, wrapping his arms around his shoulders, still swaying to the music. Before she could put the powder over her thumb, Connor’s hand shot out.

“Can I?” He asked a tinge of desperation in his voice. Gavin couldn’t tell if it was from the situation or whatever weird state of arousal Connor was in, but it must have seemed like the second to the girl.

“Sure,” She grinned. “He’s a fun one.” She laughed.

Connor moved in front of Gavin, putting the girl over Connor’s slightly taller shoulder. Gavin raised an eyebrow at the android. Connor laughed putting a hand on his cheek. “Trust me babe.” Connor lowered his hand like the girl had earlier and she tapped a small amount along the line of his thumb. “Bite my finger when you do it.” Connor murmured to him, voice low and deep. Shit Gavin was going to remember that in his dreams.

Gavin looked into Connor’s eyes and noticed they were a small bit clearer. Shit, he’s going have to trust the android. After all the shit he gave Anderson about his health he wasn’t about to let Gavin actually snort red ice right? Gavin put his hands on Connor’s waist again and lean towards Connor’s hand in front of him. He slowly took the knuckle of Connor’s index finger into his mouth and bit down lightly. He watched as Connor’s eyed dilated. Fuck, Gavin didn’t even know they did that. Did Connor like this? Oh shit. He took a quick breath and in a quick motion went to inhale the line on Connor’s hand.

He expected to actually feel the sting of the drug and was momentarily shocked when nothing happened. He just breathed in air. He quickly recovered and tossed his head back, putting a hand over his nose. He barely registered Connor and the girl laughing giddily as Connor wrapped his arms around Gavin’s waist this time.

“Well?” Connor asked, faking excitement.

“Woooo.” Gavin chuckled looking back down from ceiling. He sniffed a few times and rubbed his nose. “It hasn’t hit completely yet but this might be the best shit I’ve had.” He looked down at the girl.

Her eyes sparkled in glee. “When you want more go ahead to the VIPS and tell them you want some bourbon.”

“Thanks doll.” Gavin called after her as she disappeared.

Connor grabbed his hand and pulled him through the crowd. Gavin made sure to adjust his behavior to seem like he was getting high. He knew Chet and Lucy would be watching. He didn’t want to fuck up and make them question him when they went over to the door.

Then Connor pushed him against a wall and crowded against him. He had put an arm on either side of Gavin, using the whole of both forearms to hold him up leaving a few inches between them. Then Connor kicked one of his feet outwards and slipped a leg between Gavin’s. Connor stopped short of being completely flush against Gavin and Gavin swore he was high at the moment. This was like his best dreamed fantasy. Damn. Gavin’s brain couldn’t decide if he wanted to fuck Connor or get fucked by him. Both, he decided. Both was good too.

“You good?” Connor’s artificial breath puffed against his lips. Maybe he was high because he just wanted Connor lean a bit more and kiss him.

Nope, Gavin wanted to answer. “Yeah got about thirty minutes until it’s supposed to start wearing off.” He said instead. Gavin brought his hands up to Connor’s waist and ran his hands along his sides, pointedly ignoring the shiver and way Connor pressed into him more. They needed to keep up appearances. They were definitely watching now. “How?” He asked quietly.

“I have a compartment in my hand for storing evidence.” Connor explained. “Coin tricks are useful for more than calibration.” Connor laughed genuinely and Gavin loved it. “It’s only twelve thirty so we are ahead of schedule. And we have thirty minutes where we have to blend in. What do humans normally do after getting high at a club?”

Gavin hated to give Connor the honest answer as he looked up at his honestly curious expression. “They usually go to the bathroom to have sex.” Gavin looked to the side.

“Then let’s go.” Connor whispered against his ear. Gavin was so shocked that he blindly followed Connor to the men’s room. He was relieved when it was empty. He went into the last stall, giving it a glance over before entering. When he noticed that Connor hadn’t followed him into the stall he poked his head out.

Connor was glancing around the ceiling and then the walls. “What are you doing? Get your ass in here.” Gavin grumbled. He didn’t know why he was so impatient, it wasn’t like they were actually going to have sex. Connor smiled at him and stepped in after him, closing the door and locking it.

“We are free to talk in here if we are quiet. I didn’t detect any listening devices or tampering with the room.” Connor sighed leaning against the side of the stall.

Gavin watched Connor for a moment. “You okay? I didn’t cross any lines did I? I didn’t want to make you uncomfortable…” Gavin thought back to the android’s face on the dance floor again.

“Oh, I’m fine. Like you said, I’m new to some of these experiences and I tend to get overwhelmed. Nothing bad though.” Connor sounded sincere so Gavin left it at that.

“We should probably contact Anderson and Seymour. Let them know what our plan is.” Gavin went to pull out his phone, but Connor put his hand over Gavin’s.

“I got it. Supercomputer remember?” Connor grinned. He closed his eyes and his LED went yellow. He was probably doing that weird in his head phone call thing he did back at Gavin’s place. After a few minutes Connor opened his eyes and sighed. “Hank doesn’t like the idea but we have the go ahead.”

Gavin nodded. This was his case too. He didn’t need Anderson’s approval to go in. He came here for a bust and damn it he was going to bring that son of a bitch in with or without the distraction of a hot android pretending to be his lover and grinding on him. “Alright we need a signal to know when we have enough evidence to book him for both charges. And we need to be prepared for a fight. This might be a trap.”

Connor nodded. “But we need to keep the ruse of being lovers…” Connor trailed off.

“How about we try to stay as close as possible, like holding onto each other, that way they can’t jump us. And when you know we’ve got the evidence we need, you’ll say ‘green light’ and then we’ll know to take them down.”

Connor looked confused and cocked his head to the side. “Like the child’s game Red Light, Green Light?”

“What?” Gavin looked at him in confusion. “I mean I guess there’s that, but green light is used by couples to show that they are okay with whatever sexual thing is going on.”

Connor seemed to be thinking about it some more. “So like the child’s game?” He said again.

“I guess!” Gavin huffed. They heard the door of the bathroom swing open and close. Gavin lunged for Connor and whispered in his ear. “I’m going to pretend to suck your dick. Don’t move.” And dropped to his knees.

He put his hands on Connor’s knees so they wouldn’t look suspicious in his lap doing nothing, but he kept his head a good 8 inches from Connor’s crotch. Gavin watched as a pair of shoes slowly scuffled to the urinals. The man was clearly intoxicated, quietly humming along to the music barely leaking in from the dancefloor. He was most likely not a threat, but he could be spying on them. It was quiet except for the other man’s haggard breaths and Gavin’s quiet breaths. He glanced quickly up to Connor but he just looked down at Gavin with shocked wide eyes. Gavin looked down again to watch the man’s feet as he slowly made his way to the sinks. Gavin had to move forward a bit to watch the feet as the other man went to wash his hands.

A loud bang made both humans jump and Gavin snapped his head up to look at Connor. The android had thrown his head back against the wall, one hand reaching up to cover his mouth. What the fuck was he doing? Gavin looked down again and frowned to see the pair of shoes by the sinks had partially turned towards them.

“Hell yeah!” The other man slurred his words but his voice was so loud in the silence. “Make that bitch swallow!” He cheered and left the bathroom.

Gavin sighed in relief. At least he wasn’t a voyeur. He sprang to his feet. “What the hell was that?” He demanded.

Connor still looked shocked. “I-I don’t know!” He sounded freaked out. Whoa. Gavin put his hands up in a surrender motion. “I- My programs were running scenarios and it was too much and just the image- I…” Connor trailed off looking at his own hands as he fidgeted.

“Hey, hey we’re good.” Gavin tried to calm Connor down. “We have a plan. No need to run too many scenarios.” Gavin tried to smile at him. Connor opened his mouth and looked like he was about to say something, but seemed to decide against it and closed his mouth. “Hey how much time has passed, can we go grab that asshole?”

“It’s been 29 minutes.” Connor confirmed.

“I’d say it’s time to get high again.” Gavin felt a grin grow on his face. “Ready?” He held out his hand and was delighted when Connor grabbed it.

They made their way over to the staircase and stopped in front of Lucy and Chet. Neither android greeted them, Lucy just raising one eyebrow.

“I was told I could get more bourbon upstairs.” Gavin wrapped and arm around Connor’s waist.

“And who is with you?” Lucy asked very robotically. Weird.

“Him?” Gavin pointed to Connor. He grabbed Connor’s chin and turned that beautiful face towards him. “Only the best and most fuckable lover I’ve ever had.”

Lucy smiled at them. Her face seemed to blank for a moment before she smiled again. “Your bourbon is waiting for you in room 4.” As they headed past the two androids, Connor touched them both briefly on the arm, making eye contact. Gavin would have to ask about that later.

The VIP rooms were a hallway of six rooms with ceiling to floor length drapes as doors. Each set of curtains had a large golden number on them. Gavin and Connor made their way over to the curtain that said number four. Gavin grabbed his hand and walked through the curtain.

Inside the room there was an armed human on either wall right next to the curtain. In the middle of the room was large plush couch. Their joint suspect, a man in his 40’s, was lounging on it. He was only in a pair of sweatpants with a blunt between his lips. He took a long puff and breathed it out in rings before speaking.

“And how can I help you?” He asked.

“I was told I could get more bourbon up here?” Gavin replied.

“You can.” He answered, not bothering to move or sit up. He took another hit. “Who is this?” He gestured to Connor with his free hand.

“This is Kevin.” Gavin answered quickly putting his hand on Connor’s lower back. “My lover.”

Their suspect, Ryan Magness, eyed them for a moment. “If he is your lover than why did I get reports of you introducing yourself to each other an hour ago?”

Damn it. Think fast. “It’s roleplay.” Gavin sighed as if annoyed. “We like to pretend to meet each other in public and then let him seduce me home and fuck me into a mattress.”

“Ah.” He drew the syllable out. “Sorry to ruin the scene.” He actually sounded apologetic. Magness took another hit.

“It’s fine. It’ll be worth it, if you actually have more of what your pixie gave me earlier.” Gavin leaned into Connor’s side.

Connor turned into Gavin to nuzzle his neck. “We need an admission of creating drugs.” He whispered into Gavin’s ear. No one else in the room seemed to have heard.

“What’s wrong?” Magness asked watching them with intrigue. Not in the scientific way that Elijah watched Connor but in a dark twisted way that pissed Gavin off.

“Nothing, he’s getting bored.” Gavin shrugged. He rubbed his hand on Connor’s back in a soothing motion. “Tonight I was planning to fuck him using a new toy we got.” Gavin smirked. Where the hell did that come from? Yikes, tone it down, he thought. That said something about him though right?

“How would you two like to be closer?” The man sat forward and was grinning. “Closer than ever.”

“What do you suggest?” Connor answered looking over at the suspect from where he was rubbing his nose along Gavin’s chin.

The grin got worst. “All I would need is a little bit of your thirium, baby.” He put the blunt into an ash tray and stood up. He took languid steps towards them, watching Connor the whole way. “Just a little bit of thirium and I can make him some red ice that makes him obsessed with you.”

Ah, that was how he lured the couples. He promised them even more intimacy. The human gets high off their own android’s thirium and the android feels secure knowing their human will love them forever. It was actually pretty depressing. Poor souls.

“Obsessed?” Connor faked interest very well.

“Yes baby, he won’t be able to get enough of you. You’ll be the only thing he craves.”

Gavin noticed him reaching out for Connor. And then he noticed the set of Connor’s jaw. Something he just said pissed Connor off. “Babe, color?” Gavin looked up at Connor and gave him a small shake.

“Green Light.” Connor said in a cold voice.

Gavin tackled Ryan and pinned his arms down behind his back. He looked up and saw that Connor had incapacitated one of the guards and taken his gun. It was trained on the other guard who had his gun pointed at Connor.

“Hey man,” Gavin called out to the guy, who nervously glanced at Gavin. “Robocop here is the most advanced android to date. He knows when you’re going to shoot before you do.” Gavin got more annoyed when the man didn’t lower his weapon but looked even more uncertain. “Would you rather surrender with minimal charges? Or do you want to go to jail with a concussion or bullet wound for assaulting an officer with a deadly weapon?” That seemed to do it and he slowly lowered the weapon and dropped it. Not even a few seconds later, Anderson and Chris charged into the room guns drawn. They lowered their guns, and went to put handcuffs on the two suspects that were conscious. An ambulance was called for the man Connor knocked out. Chris and another squad car drove their suspects back to the station.

Seymour, Anderson, Connor, and Gavin stayed at the crime scene to share statements and discuss the events. It was pretty open and shut. The guy admitted to creating red ice from thirium of androids, but didn’t admit to killing them which worried Gavin. Connor assured him they had plenty evidence to tie him to the crimes though. After they finished and checked in with the other officers clearing the scene and taking statements, all four of them were ready to go home.

Gavin would blame it on the overflow of endorphins his brain suffered all night long at the mercy of being undercover with Connor, but he caught up to the android as he and Anderson headed to a taxi. “Hey,” he called out.

Connor stopped right before he got into the car. “Yes?”

“Do you want to come over tomorrow night? To celebrate finishing our cases?” Why did Gavin feel so nervous asking Connor to hang out? Oh, yeah, he had the world’s biggest fucking crush. Damn it.

“Will Princess Peach be there?” Connor grinned.

“I’ll have to check her schedule, but I’m sure she can swing by.” Gavin felt a smile on his face.

“Then I’ll come by your place around 6?”

“Yeah!” Gavin couldn’t stop his smile. He smiled all the way to his damn apartment.

Once he got home, he dropped into bed and promptly passed the fuck out.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the long wait, I started back at work and it has been a craaaazzy transition for me! But I love my job and I think it's going to be a good year!  
> Anyways this was the club scene I always intended to write for this fic back when it was a dream in my head and now its a behemoth of a fic at 41,000 words ad counting....whoops.  
> I love you all reading this!


	9. Being a handyman is a great date idea! Right?

Gavin woke up the next morning to his alarm. Well more like noon. It was 11:45. He grumbled as he fumbled with his phone to make it shut the hell up. He was still tired and pissed off. Oh but he slept last night. Only he had almost constant erotic dreams of Connor all night and woke up at least 3 times. And he had done so well at being professional last night. But it was like the floodgates opened and every little piece of last night was over analyzed under the context of Connor actually being attracted to him. The way Connor moved and smiled. The way his body felt against Gavin’s. How his thighs felt under Gavin’s hands. The way Connor’s voice deepened and his eyes dilated as Gavin leaned close enough to kiss him but instead took his finger into his mouth. Fuck.

“Fucking stop.” He grumbled at his still hard dick. He kicked off the covers and went to the bathroom. He took a shower to wake up. He did the quickest wash of his junk because he knew he would start to picture Connor if he took too long. He got dressed quickly and grabbed a granola bar on his way out the door. Gavin caught a glimpse of the elevator closing and was relieved when he saw Cynthia stop the door. He jogged over and slipped through the doors.

“Morning.” He mumbled opening the granola bar.

“Morning.” The old woman replied. “You look like you had a fun night.”

“Undercover work last night.” Gavin muttered.

“Is that why your boyfriend didn’t spend the night?” She asked.

“Cynthia…” He tried to make it sound like a warning but it was a pathetic attempt.

“Alright, but if you don’t ask him out, I will.” She raised her hands in a shrug.

Gavin snorted at that. “You’ll ask Connor out for me? I’m thirty six, Cynthia.”

“Hell no.” She smacked him in the arm. “If you won’t date the hot android, I will.”

Gavin frowned. “Really?” He raised an eyebrow.

Cynthia scowled. “No fucker. Jesus wake up. And this is who protects Detroit.” She joked. When they made it to the lobby, they parted ways. Cynthia’s youngest daughter was waiting for her. He quickly greeted her and made his way outside the apartment building.

Gavin took a cab to work. He was too tired to drive let alone defrost his car this morning. He was tempted to stop and get his favorite coffee, but the idea of the bustle of a café at noon on a Sunday in the heart of Detroit made his head hurt. He got into the station and sat down at his desk. At least he had some positives. It was a short day for him. The fact that the bust was near perfect, meant no follow up work, just paperwork which Gavin could do from the confines of his desk. And finally he had Connor coming over tonight.

Wait.

Oh shit. He forgot he invited Connor over. Gavin groaned and let his head fall on the desk with a loud thump. There was no way he was going to be able to have Connor over. He would be so awkward and probably resort back to being a dick to put some space between him and it would kill whatever friendship he and the android created. Connor was so extremely nice, but there was no way he would forgive Gavin if he started being a dick again. And Gavin didn’t want to be a dick. He genuinely wanted to hang out with Connor and learn more about him. But he knew his damn feelings and he knew tonight would be a disaster. He would have to cancel. Maybe he could say he was helping Cynthia with something.

“Good morning Detective Reed.”

Connor’s voice scared the hell out of him making him jump. He spun around in his chair so fast he had to grab the edge of his desk to stop himself from spinning around in a full circle. “Morning.”

Connor looked extremely nice today, he was wearing a dark green button up. Again, no tie and the first few buttons undone, showing off his neck. His normal black slacks fit him perfectly. But what caught Gavin’s gaze was the cup of coffee Connor was holding.

“Oh!” the android had followed Gavin’s gaze. “This is for you. Hank and I stopped by a restaurant that is next door to a café you said you enjoyed. Since I knew you were coming in about now I figured I’d grab you a cup.” Connor offered the cup.

Gavin took it gently with both hands. “Thanks Connor.” Gavin’s voice sounded soft to his own ears. Damn he was a wimp.

“I also wanted to ask you what your favorite type of movies are. We could watch a movie at your place later.” Connor began twiddling a coin with one of his hands. “Unless you already had plans for this evening!” Gavin noticed the LED flicker yellow.

Shit he couldn’t cancel on Connor. He was so excited to hang out and even wanted to find a movie Gavin liked. “A movie at home sounds perfect.” He thought for a second. “I usually like action movies. But I also like anything in the fantasy or sci-fi genre.”

Connor smiled brightly and nodded. “Alright. Can’t wait.” Connor walked back over to his desk across the room and got to work.

Gavin tried to hide his smile from behind his cup of coffee. He began writing up his reports, making sure to add all the details from his notes. The more thorough he was the more ammo the DA had for that son of a bitch. From the statements he got from Anderson and Connor, the perp changed his M.O. when he began abducting couples. At first he would just drain the android and make the drugs. Then he began taking only enough thirium to keep the android alive but immobile, and create red ice with it. Then he would overdose the human with the red ice. The human would then hallucinate and crave more red ice which would make them slowly murder the defenseless android. It was sick.

He got through about two hours of work before Chris wheeled himself over to Gavin’s desk. “Here he is. King of the undercover work.” Chris sung. “Seriously though nice bust man.” He punched Gavin in the arm.

“Right?” Gavin stopped working to grin at his old partner. “That dumbass druggie totally fell for all of it.”

“Crazy that you and the Andersons were accidently after the same dude.”

Gavin groaned. “Why does everyone automatically give Connor Anderson’s last name?”

“Uh because that’s like his father figure?” Chris snorted when Gavin grimaced. “Hey, if you like then you shoulda put a ring on it!” Chris did the Beyoncé dance from his chair.

“Shut the hell up.” Gavin tossed a stress ball he got from a training at Chris.

The other cop caught it with ease. “So you got the day off tomorrow right? Any plans?”

“Not yet. But I do need to go Christmas shopping for my ma.” Gavin leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms. Too bad he wasn’t Elijah. He would just put a bow on a stack and she’d be delighted.

“You also gunna shop for a certain android?” Chris nudged him.

“Why the hell would I do that?” Gavin was still going to play stupid.

“Come on, do you know how damn happy he would be?”

Shit that would be cute. Gavin just gave a grunt of agreement.

“Alright, I’ll leave you to moon some more, but I gotta go start my shift. See ya.”

Gavin waved him off and went back to work.

It only took him 30 minutes longer than scheduled to finish his reports and attach all evidence. When he was done, he submitted the files and leaned back in his chair stretching his arms. He had been sitting all day. He could probably hit the gym before Connor came over. He turned off his computer and waved goodbye to whoever was in the bullpen. Connor waved after him with a smile.

Gavin made it back to his apartment and changed into gym clothes. He luckily had picked an apartment with a gym included, and went downstairs. He went through his normal routine and by the end of it he was feeling good. Days where he sat at his desk all day always made him feel like his body was all shriveled up. He had found a good workout routine to follow a few years after becoming a detective. Gavin went back up to his apartment to shower. He threw on a pair of sweatpants and a V-neck shirt and fed Peach. She excitedly chattered at him as he chopped up her food.

The doorbell rang and Gavin went to answer it. To his surprise, Peach was under his feet. That was weird, she never left her dish until she was done. Ever. She must know who their guest was. He opened the door and greeted Connor. Gavin noticed Connor was still in his work clothes when the android pulled off his coat.

“Alright what movie are we watching?” Gavin asked flipping the t.v. on.

“I have narrowed it down to a list. If you have already watched any of the movies let me know so I can remove them.” Connor smiled and sat on the couch. He looked around, probably looking for Peach, but refocused on Gavin when he didn’t see her.

“Don’t worry about that. Some humans like to re-watch movies they’ve seen before. We don’t have USB’s as memory devices.” Gavin joked flicking Connor on the forehead as he sat down on the other side of the couch.

Connor looked fascinated for a moment. “Noted. Okay, so in the action genre I have select-”

A knock at the door interrupted him. Gavin frowned at the door but got up anyways. He checked the peephole and then opened the door. “Hey Cynthia. What’s going on?”

“I made too much chicken and dumplings. Would you like to have dinner?” She asked. Her eyes flicked to the side of Gavin. “Oh Connor! Good to see you.”

“Hi again, Cynthia.” Connor’s voice was right over Gavin’s shoulder and he tried not to jump in surprise.

“Wait, am I interrupting?” She squinted at them.

“Well…” Gavin was about to tell her they had completely platonic plans, but his stomach growled loudly.

Connor chuckled quietly. “We would love to join you for dinner, right Gavin?”

He looked over at the android. “You sure?” Connor nodded in earnest. “Okay, sounds great.”

Gavin helped set the table. He had eaten with Cynthia so much over the years he knew her apartment as well as his own. Cynthia was finishing up dinner. Connor observed all this quietly from the doorway between the kitchen and dining room.

When Cynthia set the food on the table she looked at Connor before disappearing back into the kitchen. She came back out with a bottle of blue blood. “Would you like some dear? My youngest’s girlfriend likes to drink it while we have dinner. Says ‘it makes her feel more human.’”

Connor stared at the bottle and Gavin watched as a rueful smile appeared on his face. “I appreciate the offer, but unfortunately it is not compatible with my model.”

Cynthia shrugged and returned it to the kitchen. “I was taking a wild guess. Anastasia has been around for quite a while.” She sat at the table and Connor and Gavin followed suit. Gavin immediately began eating. He was starving and it smelled so good.

“So your youngest daughter is in a relationship with an android?” Connor asked.

Cynthia nodded. “Mhm about 4 years now. Though Anastasia was never an android when I met her. I think she found herself long before the revolution.”

Gavin watched as Connor seemed surprised. “What do you mean by that?”

“Well, she never acted like an android. She was always warm and personal. She had hobbies and books she loved. Her favorite movie is Matilda!” Cynthia had a fond smile on her face. “My son, the forever skeptic, said that was just how she was programed. She was one of those Social Services androids. Leana and her met when they worked in Child Services together.”

“The rate of an android deviating in that line of work would be higher due to the emotional climate of the job.” Connor mused. Gavin kept an eye on him. He would bet Connor was thinking about how it would have been his job to hunt down and kill Cynthia’s daughter-in-law a few months ago. Connor tried to hide it well, but Gavin could tell the android always felt bad when it came to the reason he was brought to the DPD.

Cynthia gave a sad smile for a moment. “That’s what she says. Anastasia said that it only took her two cases before she began deviating.” Her smile brightened. “Leana said she slowly began to see how she changed and started to fall for her. Now I have a daughter in law with a big heart and curious mind. I couldn’t have asked for more!” She laughed.

Dinner continued with small talk. Mostly Cynthia trying to get a scope of what police work Gavin and Connor were doing, but most of their work was confidential until it was made public so they had little to offer. Cynthia quickly turned it back to Connor asking him questions about Jericho and what the newly liberated androids were planning to do about rights and such.

“You know it’s just awful what Cyberlife is doing staying quiet.” Cynthia wagged her finger. “They close all the repair shops and warehouses, and now they are hoarding all those tech things you androids need. It’s a hostage situation!” She cried. She turned to Gavin. “Could you imagine the uproar if the whole medical industry began withholding all life-saving medications? Calamity!”

Gavin gave a nod, but he was mostly just listening idly. He looked around the house and stopped when he glanced into the kitchen. Cynthia had her whole sink full of dishes and a few on the counter. That was odd for her. She liked to clean. Realization hit him. “Cynthia what’s broken?” He interrupted Connor and Cynthia’s conversation.

Connor looked confused, his brown eyes slightly wider than normal and his mouth tightened. Cynthia just threw her hands in surrender. “I’m sorry, I know I need to call the service guys but I’d figure I’d ask you first.” She sighed. “I hate the hours they only work. It’s the dishwasher and the disposal. And the outlet in the bathroom.”

“Cynthia!” Gavin admonished her.

“I thought I could get by without a dishwasher but my arms get tired. The disposal has made an awful noise for weeks now so I never use it. And I’m tired of bad hair days because I can’t blow dry my hair in front of the mirror.” She crossed her arms in defense. Gavin stared her down for a moment. “And Leana threatened to make the service request if I didn’t handle it this week! Happy?!” She threw her arms up again in surrender.

“Its fine, you just needed to let me know. You know I’ll fix whatever I can. Let me go get my tools.” Gavin sighed and got up from the table. He went across to his apartment and grabbed his tools out from the closet. He went back over to Cynthia’s and entered the kitchen. Cynthia was clearing the table and Connor…was washing dishes. “I see she put you to work.” Gavin joked.

“Actually I volunteered. As an android, I don’t fatigue, so I figured I could at least begin washing dishes that would not go into the dishwasher or would take up too much space.” Connor replied, a soft smile on his face.

Gavin tried to ignore the ache in his chest at how domestic the android looked. His sleeves were rolled up as he washed off a pan. Those hands that Gavin knew were so soft and warm, that could easily break a bone in their mechanical strength. Connor was a wonder, Gavin thought. Here is the most advanced android in all aspects, especially combative, living his life like a normal person.

Gavin shook himself and put his tool bag down. “What’s the dishwasher doing Cynthia?” Gavin called out to the other room.

“It’s leaking halfway through the cycle, and then just turns off and leaves everything soapy.” She answered back.

Gavin hummed in thought as he pulled the dish washer out from the wall. There was still a lot of water underneath it so he grabbed a towel to clean it up. Once he had the area clean he sat on the floor and started at the connection for the water system. He finally found the leak once he opened the back panel. The tube that drains the water out was split. It was probably letting the water out too fast and the machine read the error and shuts down the cycle to prevent any more water from leaking. He fixed the tube and ran through the rest of the pipes to make sure none were broken either. He moved the dish washer back into place. “Alright let’s run this thing, see if I did this right.” Gavin pressed a few buttons and ran a quick wash cycle.

He figured he would move to the disposal while he waited to see if the washing machine exploded. He looked up at Connor ready to ask him to move and was shocked to see Connor staring at him.

Connor looked embarrassed and quickly turned the water to the sink off. “I’ll get out of your way.” He dried his hands off on a towel and moved away from the sink.

Gavin was very confused. What the hell was that? He shook himself off and opened the cabinets under the sink. He pulled out the tubs of cleaning supplies Cynthia kept under the sink and placed it on the ground next to him. Then he went about detaching the garbage disposal from the sink. When he finally got it off he sighed out loud. “What the hell Cynthia? Why is there a plastic fork in the disposal?” Or what’s left of one, he thought as he pulled out the mangled corpse of a plastic fork. He checked the part for any other damage and when he didn’t find any, fixed it back into the sink. He stood up to test it. Connor had done a good job of clearing out the side of the sink with the disposal attached. He moved the few extra plates at the bottom of the sink to the other side and flicked the switch. It sounded right. He turned on the water and check to make sure it wasn’t leaking. Satisfied, he put the tub of cleaning supplies back under the sink and closed the cabinet.

The dish washer seemed fine so far, so he headed to the bathroom. He absently noticed Connor follow him. Figured the android would find interest in fixing things. He was probably wondering why they hadn’t just called an android to do this. He made his way into the bathroom, stopping in the hallway to flip off the electric in that room from the fuse box, and began unscrewing the cover for the outlet. Gavin noticed out the corner of his eye that Connor was fidgeting.

“You okay over there?” He asked keeping his eyes focused on the screwdriver he was using.

“Um De- Gavin you should be cautious and use protective gloves when doing electrical work. American household outlets never exceed a hundred and ten watts but it still could damage you if electrocuted. And electrical work really should only be done by those trained and certified.” Connor spoke quickly.

Gavin couldn’t help the small smile on his face. “I’m going to stop you right there. One, I have been electrocuted before. Not fun, so I’m not trying to do it again. Two, no, I ain’t certified, but my dad was an electrician and taught me everything he knew. I used to work on wiring up houses throughout my teenage years. And three,” Gavin paused and moved out of the bathroom, went to his tool box and came back to the bathroom. He slipped on the gloves he kept in the box and held them up for Connor to see. “Happy?”

Connor seemed surprised and Gavin watched as Connor’s eyes moved over his hands and then back up to his face. His LED spun yellow once and went back to pulsing blue. Connor gave short nod and Gavin began working on the outlet again.

Once he got the outlet out he inspected the wires. Two of them were melted and the grounding wire looked fried. He was shocked it hadn’t electrocuted Cynthia. “Hey Cynth,” he called out. “What exactly were you doing when this thing stopped working?”

The old woman appeared in the doorway next to Connor. “Blow drying my hair. I put it down on my towel while I went and got my hairbrush out of my room. The lights flicked off for a second and the hairdryer stopped working. Had to buy a new one. Damn thing burnt my towel too!” Cynthia huffed, looking at the offending object with disgust.

Gavin resisted the urge to sigh. “Well, it’s busted, but I luckily have an extra one from when I redid the outlets at my place. I thought there was one behind the dresser in my room, but nope. Let me go get it.” Gavin had to squirm out of the bathroom with Cynthia and Connor in the way and headed back to his apartment. Peach yelled at him as he walked in the door. “I ain’t ignoring you princess. I’m almost done at Cynthia’s place.” Gavin explained as he grabbed the outlet and headed back over.

Cynthia and Connor were talking in the hallway. “Gavin always comes over and fixes things for me or moves furniture around for me. He’s been the best neighbor I’ve ever had.” Gavin heard Cynthia say. She patted his chest as he walked by. “He’s been way more helpful than my son. Kid couldn’t move my couch if he wanted to.”

“That’s not fair Cynthia.” Gavin chided her as he began installing the new outlet.

“Where is your son now?” Connor asked.

“He’s out in California as a fancy brain surgeon. He was a smart kid and made sure to focus in on that. So sure he can’t lift a couch or fix my house up, but he can save people’s lives in a field where few can.” Cynthia beamed, obviously proud. “Gavin’s been the knucklehead jock of a son I never had!”

“Excuse you, I’m pretty fucking smart too.” He huffed as he fitted the outlet back into place.

“Gavin is extremely good at quick thinking. It actually helped solve a case the other night.” Connor vaguely brought up the undercover sting.

Gavin felt his face flush at the memory. “Alright, done.” Gavin began collecting his tools and went to go pack his toolbox. He quickly checked on the dishwasher and was happy to see it ran properly. “Anything else?” Gavin asked.

“Nah, that’s it for now. Thanks for coming over hun.” She said, opening her arms for a hug. Gavin rolled his eyes and obliged.

“Not a big deal. You fed me.” Gavin patted her back before stepping away. He picked up his bag as Connor said goodbye.

Cynthia gave him a hug too. “Thanks for coming over hun. It was good to see you again!”

“Thank you for having us.” Connor’s smile was blinding.

Connor and Gavin waved goodbye and headed back into Gavin’s apartment. Did Connor still want to watch a movie? Gavin hadn’t planned to go over to Cynthia’s. He wouldn’t be lying if he said he would be disappointed if Connor had to leave immediately. He put his tool bag away in the hallway closet and turned around to go back to the living room. He was expecting Connor to already be on the couch paying attention to Peach, but the android was in front of him instead.

“Connor?” Gavin never got to ask what he was doing because the android had gently pushed him back against the door and crowded against him. Connor’s hands were right next to his head, caging him in. Gavin could just barely feel simulated breaths against his face. Gavin looked into Connor’s eyes to see that they were dilated and searching his own face. Connor looked afraid? What was going on?

“Correct me if I have mixed up signals over the last week, but I really want to kiss you.” Connor whispered.

All of Gavin’s thoughts flew out the damn window. “Then do it.” He answered.

Connor slowly leaned towards him, probably trying to give him time to back away if he wanted to.

But he didn’t.

Gavin closed the rest of the distance. Why hadn’t he done this sooner? He thought as he felt Connor’s lips against his own. They were soft and pliable like the rest of his skin that Gavin had felt. They were warm and perfect. And just like when they danced, he matched Gavin’s movements.

Connor seemed to melt at once, one hand on the closet door keeping himself a tiny distance from Gavin as his other hand came up to caress the side of Gavin’s face. Gavin wanted him closer so he placed one hand on the android’s collarbone and the other behind his shoulder as he guided Connor to lean into him more. Connor easily let himself fall into Gavin. Gavin let his hand slip down Connor’s chest and it stopped over his thirium pump. He could subtly feel it humming away as the component was working double time. Like a heartbeat. That was beating fast in excitement. The thought made Gavin groan.

Connor gasped in surprise at the noise and Gavin took the opportunity to lick at Connor’s lips for a second. When Connor in turn flicked his tongue over Gavin’s lips, he thought his knees would give out. He pulled back a bit, turning his head to the side. Connor made a sound of disapproval and leaned his forehead against Gavin’s cheek.

“I need to breathe.” Gavin tried to will his voice not shake. He tried to take deep breaths, to slow down his own humming heartbeat.

“So I was not wrong in my assumption?” Connor breathed against Gavin’s cheek.

He couldn’t help the short laugh that escaped him. “Nope. Pretty fucking spot on.” Gavin felt Connor’s hand slide over the back of his neck and his fingers brush over his hair. The feeling made him shiver. This was what he had thought about for weeks, suddenly happening in his apartment. “Wait, Connor why?”

“Why?” Connor pulled back to look at Gavin’s expression. Gavin’s question clearly confused the android as his head did that tilt thing his eyes flicking back and forth over Gavin’s face.

“Why did you want to me kiss me? Why now?” Gavin watched as Connor seemed to be looking for what response he wanted to give and Gavin sighed. “Let’s sit down.” He grabbed Connor’s wrist, because he didn’t want to hold his hand if this wasn’t what Gavin hoped it was. Gavin flopped down on the couch and Connor sat a few inches next to him. Connor turned to face Gavin fully.

“I kissed you because I wanted to. You stimulate emotions like happiness and attraction in me.” Connor finally answered.

Gavin balked. He was attractive to Connor? What hell? “I’m attractive to you?” he asked out loud.

Connor made a face that clearly said ‘I’m concerned for you.’ “Yes. I’m surprised you didn’t know. Hank said I was being very obvious.”

Gavin was reeling. He ran the last week over in his head. The handcuff joke, Connor looking at him, them at the undercover sting dancing. Connor hitting his head against the stall door. Gavin felt his face heat up and suddenly his apartment was too warm at 67 degrees. “I…” What was he going to say? He felt that if he opened his mouth all his thoughts and feelings would just spill out. He must have taken too long because Connor spoke up first.

“Was I wrong to assume you are interested in me too?” Connor’s voice was quiet and purposefully neutral. Gavin looked over to see Connor watching him carefully and he realized, Connor’s just as vulnerable right now as Gavin was. Shit, he might as well put it all out there and pick up the pieces after.

“No. I, uh, really like you.” Gavin said his face still hot. He resisted the urge to cover it.

“In a romantic and sexual manner, yes?” Connor was staring at him in earnest.

Gavin didn’t think he could feel any warmer but here he was. He tried to swallow down his embarrassment, but this was so out of anything Gavin expected. “Yeah.” He said quickly. He couldn’t make eye contact with Connor.

“Good. I also find you as a good candidate for a romantic relationship.” Connor said stiffly.

Gavin looked over at the android and chuckled. “What? When we actually admit feelings you’re all robotic and formal? Where’s the funky little android threating to cuff me or was dancing at the club?”

“Would you prefer if I used a more direct approach to get your attention?” Connor asked as he slowly leaned towards Gavin. Gavin felt goosebumps break out across his skin as Connor put a hand on his knee.

Shit, Gavin’s brain was fried. “I…uh,” Gavin couldn’t figure out what he wanted to say. Connor’s hand was warm on his leg and he had no clue what to do next. For the last almost 5 years Gavin hasn’t been in a relationship. For the last 5 years any interaction of human intimacy or whatever have been quick meetups and fucks. And now beautiful, wonderful Connor had his hand on his knee telling him he was interested in Gavin. This was so probably out of their experience for both of them. He hasn’t been with anyone emotionally in years and Connor is like 7 months old or something. Fuck. Connor’s hand slid off his knee and Gavin’s eyes shot up to the android.

“I’m sorry if that made you uncomfortable.” Connor began to lean back, clearly showing disappointment. His eyes were looking down at his own hands.

Fuck Gavin didn’t want to mess up this early. So he told his thoughts to go fuck themselves and his hand reached out to grab Connor’s. The android met his gaze and Gavin took a deep breath. “Look Connor, I really like you. And I never expected you to even think about me like that. I’m still trying to process it. It’s a lot. No supercomputer remember?” He tried to joke tapping his forehead. Connor gave a small smile and Gavin took it as a win. “I haven’t been in a relationship for a long time, so I’m not exactly sure where we go, but I guess you haven’t been in one either right?” Gavin continued when Connor nodded. “So if you want to do this,” Gavin couldn’t help but give him an out, “I want to do this in a way that you’re comfortable with.”

Connor still had a smile on his face and he turned his hand to lace his fingers with Gavin’s. “I’m a bit thrown off by your consideration.” Connor’s eyes crinkle as he gives a short laugh. “But this is something I find myself wanting. I’m not exactly sure how to proceed, and any research I have done gives mixed signals.” Connor seemed to relax against the back of the couch, his body still angled towards Gavin. Connor tapped his fingers against Gavin’s knuckles.

“Mixed signals?” Gavin felt his eyebrow raise at that.

“Yes.” Connor nodded looking a little exasperated. “The reason I have taken so long in approaching you with my feelings is because when I search through media the behaviors demonstrated in movies and shows are one way and yet when I research using psychological methods, I get a whole new set of expected behaviors. And yet, research shows that the relationships shown in media are most typically not healthy according to the psychological standpoint, and yet relationships fitting those criteria seem to be an outlier in the media.” Connor actually pouted and Gavin tried not to laugh. “I was unsure of how to pursue this.”

Gavin couldn’t help it and he laughed out loud. He quickly settled down. “Yeah, humans are pretty fucked up. We know doing something isn’t good for anyone and sometimes we can’t stop. And yeah the media hasn’t been good at modeling relationships ever in my lifetime. At least they let queer people on tv now.” Gavin laughed. Connor was still holding his hand and Gavin hoped he didn’t let go.

Gavin was feeling giddy. He knew he was being weird, but he couldn’t bring back his gruff façade even if he wanted to right now. Wait a minute. Gavin’s brain halted as he remembered why they were sitting on the couch. If Connor had found it difficult to approach Gavin, then why did he all the sudden kiss him? “Connor why did you pick tonight to…tell me.” He almost brought up the kiss but he couldn’t push past his embarrassment just yet.

Now Connor looked sheepish and was looking anywhere but at Gavin. “Well that doesn’t matter now right? The why, I mean, now that we know we both reciprocate these feelings.”

Hold up. Gavin felt a smirk cross his face. He turned his body to face Connor more. “I feel like you might be hesitant to tell me the reason.” Gavin leaned towards the android and relished in how Connor’s eyes darted to him, widened, and then flickered anywhere but his face. “Connor, why did you decide to kiss me tonight?”

“I didn’t decide, I just did it!” Connor finally blurted out. He looked so flustered even with the lack of blush and Gavin loved it.

“Why? I didn’t do anything special tonight?” Gavin liked teasing the android, but he was genuinely curious what spurred Connor on. Unless… “Unless you planned this for tonight from the beginning?”

Connor turned a shocked expression on Gavin and it momentarily threw him off. “N-No!” Connor stammered but it sounded more like a glitch and Gavin weirdly loved it. “I did not come here with sexual intentions, but I don’t know…Watching you help Cynthia around the house and repair things, I just found it really…attractive. I acted on instinct.”

That made Gavin pause. Him doing housework got Connor hot and bothered? He stared at the android. Connor wasn’t watching him, but was watching their hands that were still intertwined. Now that he thought about it, the kiss earlier wasn’t really sexual. Connor seemed more adoring than anything. Which was weird because Gavin was… just Gavin. He was an asshole, and an idiot, and sometimes lame.

“Okay.” Was all Gavin could say.

Connor let out a sigh. “It’s pretty late.” He sounded reluctant and made no move to get up.

“Stay.” His mouth moved before he could think.

“Stay?”

“I mean if you want. You could sleep here. With me.” Gavin looked at Connor’s wide eyes and suddenly realized how that might sound. “I mean actually sleep like that android thing you do where your LED turns green. Not…you know.” Gavin trailed off.

Connor was quiet, but the smile was still on his face. Gavin watched as Connor looked up at him, shy smile growing confident. “I would like to stay but I don’t want to just sleep.” Gavin felt like time slowed down as Connor began leaning towards him.

Gavin felt himself turns towards Connor, planning to meet him halfway, but Connor seemed to have other plans. One of his hands pushed Gavin against the arm of the couch as he moved to hover over Gavin, slotting one knee between his legs. Gavin felt his pulse race as Connor placed his other hand on the arm of the couch to support himself. God why was Connor taking so long? He couldn’t wait.

One of Gavin’s hands reached up behind Connor’s neck and brought himself up to kiss the android. He nearly sighed in relief as Connor responded immediately. Gavin felt Connor’s tongue run against his lips and he felt his blood rush. Gavin distantly wondered if this was something he could download and research.

Connor’s hand tightened on the fabric of Gavin’s shirt before he felt the hand move, seemingly to explore his chest. Gavin felt his air run out as the hand headed south, but it stopped at his waist as Connor gently squeezed his hip. Gavin broke apart from Connor taking in the air he needed. Connor was panting too and Gavin opened his eyes to meet Connor’s gaze.

“I really am enjoying this sensation.” Connor mumbled moving to kiss along Gavin’s jaw. Yup Connor had to of done research.

Gavin gave a breathless chuckle. “That’s good.” Gavin ran his fingers through the hair at the base of Connor’s head, marveling at the realistic feel of it. He was so mesmerized he almost missed the soft gasp Connor made as Gavin brushed his fingers along the back of Connor’s neck. Almost.

Gavin suddenly remembered his suspicion of Connor being extremely sensitive and he had a craving to satisfy that curiosity. He let his hand gently massage the back of Connor’s neck, catching the way Connor momentarily paused in the attention he was giving Gavin’s jaw and neck. Gavin brought his other hand up and gripped Connor’s upper arm. He felt the components meant to simulate biceps and brought his hand to rest against Connor’s collarbones. He had imagined kissing these so many times. He let his hand trail down Connor’s chest to rest over his thirium pump that was working overtime. Connor was mostly now just breathing against Gavin’s neck and he could slowly feel the android warming up. Not uncomfortable, but if he was human he would have been flushed down to his chest.

Gavin let his hand go lower and map out Connor’s abdomen. He didn’t have a six pack and Gavin was a little relieved. His stomach was firm, like someone who worked out just enough to stay fit. The thought made Gavin painfully aware of how turned on he was himself. He was hesitant to touch Connor below the belt so he left his fingers skim Connor’s hip, down to his thighs.

The same thighs that had moved against him when they danced together the other night. He would never admit out loud but when he had leaned against Connor when they were in the bathroom, he was very much aware of how firm those thighs felt under his hands. Gavin refocused as he felt Connor drop his head onto his shoulder, feeling warm puffs of breath through his shirt. Gavin gave the outside of Connor’s thigh a gentle squeeze, and nearly died at the hum Connor gave in response.

“Here.” He breathed out as he wrapped his hand around the back of Connor’s thigh and motioned for him to move. Connor seemed to understand perfectly because he was quickly straddling Gavin. “You good?” He didn’t want to android to overheat on him.

Connor moved back to look Gavin in the face and nodded. His eyes were glassy in lust and it made Gavin’s heart rate pick back up. Not that it had even dropped below 90 beats a minute in the last ten minutes. Connor was already a little bit taller than Gavin but from his position in Gavin’s lap it made him tower over him. Gavin looked up at Connor. This was perfect. His hands squeezed at Connor’s hips and Connor’s hands came up to Gavin’s face to bring him into another kiss.

Gavin wanted to pull Connor as close as possible and feel every inch of him. But he played it more passively letting Connor be the one doing most of the exploring. Gavin lets his hands run over Connor’s back but noted that Connor seemed to especially like when Gavin’s thumbs rubbed against where his hipbones would be. Damn Cyberlife probably programed all these sensitive spots. He’d never admit it but he was pretty damn grateful.

Gavin let his hands fall back down to Connor’s thighs. He gently massaged at first, testing out the sensation. Connor actually moaned into his mouth and Gavin couldn’t stop the groan in response. He massaged those thighs in earnest now, hoping for more sounds. His hands had travelled to the tops of Connor’s thighs, when Connor suddenly pulled back with gasp.

“W-wait.” Connor’s hands rested on top of Gavin’s. “I’m not sure of the next steps and I’d like to do more research before proceeding.” Connor looked down at Gavin, obviously nervous.

“Okay.” Gavin’s voice was rough and he cleared his throat, feeling his face heat up. “Okay.” He repeated earnestly. He patted Connor’s thigh once before removing his hands.

Connor moved off of him, but Gavin suspected he was reluctant. He situated right next to Gavin keeping their thighs touching completely. Gavin put one arm over the back of the couch, letting it gently rest along Connor’s shoulders. “I’m sorry if this is unusual.” Connor was fidgeting with his hands again.

Gavin put one hand over the androids. “That’s not a bad thing, Connor.” Gavin surprised himself. That was a half decent response if he said so himself. “It’s good to be prepared. And we haven’t really talked about boundaries yet. Plus it’s better to do research, than to have no clue what you’re doing.” Gavin chuckled.

“I feel like there is a story behind that.” Connor teased him. He leaned more into Gavin.

He was feeling too giddy to put his walls back up and at this point they would have been useless anyways. “Yeah, my first time ever, the girl I was with was just as lost as I was and we had no clue what to do. It was really awkward in hindsight.” Gavin remembered how out of field he had been. “And then about a year later, when I was figuring things out, the guy I was with had no experience either and we just ended up jerking each other off. That was awkward in hindsight too.”

Gavin jumped when his phone began ringing. “Shit.” He mumbled fishing it out of his pocket. Who was calling him at ten o’ clock at night? Oh shit, was it Anderson? He was even more confused when his caller id said ‘Asshole’. “What do you want?” Gavin answered the phone.

“Put me on speaker.” Elijah’s voice was a little off. Not the normal calm he usually exuded. Worried, Gavin did as he was told.

“Elijah what the hell?” Gavin tried again.

“Are you and Connor having a sexual experience?” Gavin felt his eyes widen in shock. “I have a few research questions I wanted to ask. Of course, I’m curious if Connor can blush. Also I want to know how exactly the sensation technology works on Connor’s skin and how extensive it is. I had only placed sensors in important areas that could be vulnerable on a human for Markus’s model. Does it follow the normal erogenous map of the human body? Connor, have you downloaded any programs from the household or pleasure android model series?” Elijah listed of questions at an embarrassing speed.

Gavin felt his face heat up, but Connor was suddenly extremely warm next to him. He glanced over at the android in concern but his eyes were nervously darting everywhere. “Hey, hey, hey.” Gavin cut his cousin off. “Elijah shut the fuck up.” Shockingly Elijah stopped. “How the fuck did you know Connor was here?”

“Chloe told me.”

“Why the hell does Chloe know?” Gavin looked between his phone and Connor.

“I was supposed to call Chloe tonight, but I told her I was here and would call her tomorrow.” Connor had the decency to look sheepish.

“And then Chloe informed me and I am the creator of androids.” Elijah bragged.

“Shut the fuck up you.” Gavin snapped at him. “First nothing is happening. If something was I wouldn’t pick up the phone dumbass.”

“I figured I had caught you after.” Elijah now sounded back to his cool self. “I know you won’t last long against Connor.” Gavin felt the mortification creep up his spine, but he didn’t deny it. It was probably painfully true.

“Shut up. Second, I ain’t answering these question about Connor you fucking creep, you heard of privacy? It’s usually a thing people like in their sex lives.” Gavin lectured the man probably sitting in his giant fucking bed surrounded by like 3 Chloe androids, knowing Elijah.

“So there is a sex life between you two. How recent is this?” The excitement was palpable over the phone.

“Fuck off Kamski.” Gavin grumbled. “I’m hanging up now.” He clicked it before Elijah could say anything else. It was silent in the apartment for a moment. The Gavin felt laughter bubble up in his chest and he began laughing. Had anyone told him he would of fucking made out with Connor the Robocop and then have his cousin harass him two months ago he would of brought them in for being under the influence of illegal substances. Connor also began to quietly laugh and Gavin liked the sound a lot.

The tension in the room was gone and now just a calm, sleepy feeling overwhelmed Gavin. “I’m tired now, so I’m heading to bed. It’s up to you, but you don’t have to sleep on the couch this time. You can sleep in my room.” Gavin chanced at look at Connor.

Connor gave him a soft smile. “I’d like that.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AAAAnd its here!!! More Cynthia! More disaster Gavin! More wonderful Connor! More Kamski being a shit! I hope you guys liked the chapter! I think i'm going to wrap everything up in a chapter or two, but it might take a week or so. I began working an adult job again and Im busy the whole week, but yall always manage to inspire me to write more!

**Author's Note:**

> im on tumblr at notnowbro and notnowbroimfangirling. say hi and yell at me about fandoms :)


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